Just two days after a Borough Park woman was sexually assaulted in her own home by a tzedaka collector, police have arrested a suspect in the case, after being tipped off by Shomrim.
“One of our members spotted a person of interest who might fit the description of the man we were looking for,” Mutty Katz of Shomrim told VIN News. “We contacted the person who filed the police report and contacted 911.”
Both police and Shomrim canvassed the area for several hours on Friday afternoon, as previously reported on VIN News. “The police came down and the witness identified the man,” said Katz. “It was the way he was described that allowed us to identify him as a person of interest: the kind of hat he was wearing, his beard and the way he was walking.
The witness gave us the missing pieces of the puzzle and we got him.” Police sources confirmed, that a 59 year old Brooklyn man was arrested at 2:34 this afternoon on 59th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues and charged with forcible touching in the incident which took place on November 8th.
Assemblyman Dov Hikind told VIN News that the collector had reportedly asked the victim, who is in her 20’s, for permission to use the bathroom when he came to her door on Friday and once again issued a strong advisory to the public. “We are a community of givers and we don’t want anyone to change that but you have to be careful,” said Hikind. “Don’t ever let anyone into your house if you don’t know them.”
Hikind had high words of praise for Shomrim. “Shomrim are indispensible, magnificent and they are one of the most effective means of law enforcement in the city of New York as they work with the police department,” observed Hikind. “They are superstars.”
