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Elvis Nina Pichardo, 40, was arrested in connection with the three attacks on women at the Inwood Hill Park on Wednesday
A man who has been arrested for allegedly attacking three women in the span of one hour in an Upper Manhattan park had only been out of prison for a matter of weeks after serving time for a similar attack in 2007, according to reports.
Elvis Nina Pichardo, 40, was arrested on Friday, after allegedly threatening to sexually assault two women at the Inwood Hill Park on Wednesday, and hitting another woman with a tree branch while ‘continually slamming her head into the ground,’ according to the New York Post.
He allegedly tried to pull down her pants to rape her, according to police.
Later that night, he entered a medical spa and was told to leave, after which he is allegedly to have returned, exposed himself and ‘desecrated the front door,’ according to ABC 7.
Pichardo was arraigned on Saturday, on attempted rape, attempted criminal sexual act, sexually-motivated assault, menacing, robbery and public lewdness charges.
But this is not the first time Pichardo has been arrested for a sexual attack.
In 2007, he was arrested in Waco, Texas for randomly targeting an 18-year-old girl, threatening her and then attacking her.
He was reportedly carrying a box-cutter at the time, and was charged with aggravated kidnaping and sexual abuse.
Pichardo was convicted in 2008 of the crime, and was released from prison on May 6, according to the Post.
He was living in the Bronx at the time of the attacks on Wednesday, and was originally arrested on a separate public lewdness charge in Chinatown.
Pichardo was arraigned on Saturday, on attempted rape, attempted criminal sexual act, sexually-motivated assault, robbery and public lewdness charges
Pichardo was seen walking out of a court house following his arraignment Saturday
The attacks in Manhattan on Wednesday began around 10.50am, when a man, now alleged to be Pichardo, approached a 24-year-old woman and punched her in the face saying he wanted to rape her.
‘I want to take you into the park and rape you,’ he told the woman, according to the New York Daily News. ‘I have a condom.’
The suspect allegedly took the woman’s Apple watch, iPhone and earbuds before fleeing the scene.
Hardly 40 minutes later, a man threatened to kill a 40-year-old woman’s dog as she walked the pup in Inwood Hill Park. Like the first incident, the man also threatened to sexually assault her before running away after she yelled out for help, cops said.
Then just before noon, a 44-year-old woman was walking her dog when a man tried to talk to her before smacking her in the face with a branch, causing her to lose consciousness.
Authorities said he also took the woman’s pants off as she lay unconscious, fleeing only after she awoke.
A good Samaritan, who had just found the victim’s dog nearby, spotted the woman as she staggered out of a wooded area looking for help.
She told the good Samaritan that she may have been sexually assaulted, and her head and face also were cut. She was taken to Harlem Hospital in stable condition.
Police were investigating the scene of the attacks on Wednesday, and have since arrested Pichardo in the alleged attacks
Police confirmed to DailyMail.com that one of Wednesday’s cases was being investigated as a possible sexual assault
Parkgoers, especially women, are voicing their concerns over the safety of Inwood Hill Park, which was the site of a brutal, still-unsolved murder of Juilliard student Sarah Fox back in 2004.
‘At 11 a.m. in the morning, I got to walk my dog before I got to work. Who’s thinking that’s going to happen?’ Amanda Hall-Smith said, according to ABC7.
The park itself sits within the neighborhood of Inwood in Upper Manhattan.
Violent crimes in the neighborhood are 53 percent higher than the national average, with a 1 in 59 chance of being a victim of a crime, Area Vibes reports of Inwood.
Authorities are asking anyone with information regarding Wednesday’s crimes to call the Crime Stoppers tip line at 800-577-TIPS or submit an internet tip.
The attacks come amid a rise in crime across New York City.
NYPD data shows that rapes are up 2.8 percent so far this year, with 778 reported in the year to July 18, compared to 757 in the same period of 2020.
Other sex crimes are up 24.3 percent to 2,489 this year, compared to 2,002 last year, according to NYPD statistics.
Shootings have spiked 21.9 percent in 2021 compared to last year as of July 18, its most recent data, with 840 shooting incidents in 2021 compared to 689 in 2020.
There are also 16 percent more shooting victims this year, the data shows, with 981 people falling prey to gun violence compared to 846 last year.
The number of murders has also risen from 233 to 226 in the same timeframe – a 3.1 percent rise, while rape cases have risen 2.8 percent and other sex crimes have risen a staggering 24.3 percent.
The biggest leap in crime rates is for hate crimes, which has surged by 110.4 percent in the last year. This data comes amid numerous random attacks on Asian Americans in the city, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eric Adams, the ex-cop who is the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, warned earlier this month that ‘no one is going to come back’ if violence, and in particular gun violence in the Big Apple continues.
The Brooklyn borough president appeared at an event with Governor Andrew Cuomo on July 14, as the two political leaders presented a united front in addressing the worrying rising crime.
‘No one is going to come back to our multibillion-dollar tourism industry if 3-year-olds are being shot in Times Square,’ Adams said.
Adams, 60, won the Democratic primary for this year’s mayoral race and will become the mayor of New York if he defeats Republican Curtis Sliwa in the general election.
Source: dailymail
