Central Park Rape Suspect Apprehended By Police

Update: Central Park rape suspect David Albert Mitchell - 42, a parolee from Virginia - is escorted from the PSA 5 Pct on E. 124th Street which houses the Manhattan North Special Victims squad this evening at 5:25pm. He will be brought to Manhattan Criminal Court where he will be arraigned.

(Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates.) Click on image to enlarge.

He spit and cursed at the media as he was walked to an unmarked police car. Two of the uniformed rookie officers who arrested Mitchell walked behind him as he was escorted to the car.

Mitchell was charged with first-degree rape, committing a predatory sex act, committing a criminal sex act, robbery, assault and criminal possession of stolen property.

Mitchell has a lengthy arrested record including for murder, sexual assault, possession of a firman, and robbery in Virgina. He did eight years for a 2003 kidnapping.

He was just 18 when he was charged with molesting and beating to death 87-year-old Annie Parks during a burglary in his hometown of Jenkinjones near the border of Kentucky and Virginia.

Police say he was known in Central Park as "Keith" and also the "Animated Man."

"I won’t let anything keep me from enjoying the park. It's my park. " said the Central Park rape victim.

Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

Hours after a 73-year-old bird watcher was brutally raped, mugged and beaten in Central Park yesterday, police apprehended the suspected who they believe is the assailant, NYC Park Advocates has learned.

N.Y.P.D. surveillance-camera images of the suspect that three rookie uniform cops used to find the suspect.

Police picked up a 42-year-old male described by law enforcement sources as homeless last night at 7:20pm on Amsterdam Avenue and 77th Street.

He has an out-of state police record and was also wanted for questioning for a August 20th incident in Central Park where he allegedly pulled a knife on a park patron.

He is expected to be walked out of PSA 5 Pct on E. 124th Street Between 2nd/3rd Ave. momentarily.

This was the third reported rape on parkland in a little over a week including one on Monday.

On Wednesday Mitchell walked past three rookie uniformed officers around 7:20 p.m. on 77th Street and Amsterdam Avenue a few blocks from Central Park's Strawberry Fields where the rape occurred. The officers - Enmanuel A. Rodriguez and Steven F. Ourelio, both 26, and Sicelin Ortiz, 23, - recognized the suspect from the surveillance video that was circulated by the NYPD within hours of the incident.

The officers arrested Mitchell and he was later identified by the victim in a lineup.

According to police the career criminal allegedly confronted the woman because she had taken pictures of him masturbating in the Ramble a week and a half before the vicious assault.

“Do you remember me?” the victim said Mitchell asked her before attacking her.

Mitchell threw the woman to the ground, punched her repeatedly in the face and other parts of her body, raped her and stole her bag, police said.

“He pounced on me. He jumped on my back . . . I started screaming. And he said, ‘You don’t scream!’ And he grabbed my throat.

“I still screamed. ‘He said, ‘I’ll cut your jugular!’ I stopped screaming.”

Then “he raped me — vaginally and rectally. Brutally,” she said.

Afterward, he repeated, “I’ll cut your jugular. He mashed my head into the dirt. He said, ‘You stay there and count to 100.’

"I counted to 100.”

On Thursday afternoon the victim - who suffered two black eyes, bruises and a broken finger in the brutal attack - told a reporters that she wants her attacker “dead."

The brave woman said, “I’m not scared. I don’t want to lose that pleasure. I won’t let anything keep me from enjoying the park.”

“I’m not going back looking like this, but of course I’ll go back. It’s my park. “I look like hell, but it will heal. I can see I’m alive,” she said.

Police recovered the picture of him of the previous encounter from her computer's hard drive. At least of the victim's memory cards were found on him at the time of the arrest.

Crime scene yesterday afternoon in Central Park near Strawberry Fields. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates)

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73-Year-Old Raped & Mugged In Central Park

Police investigate the rape & mugging of a 73-year-old woman in Central Park late this morning in Strawberry Fields. Yesterday a 56-year-old woman was raped and pushed over a railing and fell 20 feet from the second story of Pier 15 in lower Manhattan. (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on Image to enlarge.

Manhattan

A 73-year-old birdwatcher says she was raped Wednesday in Central Park, possibly by a man angered because she photographed him exposing himself there, according to WBNC News.

The woman told investigators the man asked, "Do you remember me?" before attacking her about 11 a.m. near the park's tranquil Strawberry Fields that serves as a memorial to John Lennon, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news conference.

Police are looking for this man in the Central Park rape and mugging of a 73-year-old woman late this morning in Central Park. tThe image was taken from a NYPD Argus surveillance camera on W. 72nd Street. (Credit: NYPD)

The woman, who regularly visits the park to watch birds, said she thinks the assailant was the same man she photographed masturbating about a week ago in another, more isolated part of the park, police said. She said he demanded she delete the image before they went their separate ways. Police said that initial encounter wasn't reported.

Wednesday, investigators spoke to Eric Ozawa, a college professor and birdwatcher who had called 911, while other officers and detectives swarmed the scene in search of the suspect.

Ozawa, 34, told reporters he was in the park about 11:30 a.m. when he noticed a pair of legs sticking out along the path but thought it was somebody sleeping. As Ozawa got closer, he realized it was a woman lying face down. Her face was badly swollen, she had a black eye and was covered in mulch, he said.

Still, she appeared "self-possessed and lucid," he said.

The woman told Ozawa she had been mugged and raped, he said. He immediately called the police.

"It's shocking that it could happen in the park in broad daylight," he said. "That someone could rape somebody in her 70s."

Police blocked off much of the area near West 72nd Street and Central Park West as they hunted for a suspect described as a man in his 40s.

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Man Charged In Statutory Rape Of 15-Year-Old In Central Park's Strawberry Fields

Strawberry Fields in Central Park near 72nd Street, was cordoned off for much of the day while police investigated an alleged statutory rape early Sunday morning law enforcement sources told A Walk In The Park. Police were seen checking for finger prints on park benches.

Manhattan

A man was arrested for statutory rape in Central Park's Strawberry Fields Sunday morning sources said.

The suspect, Matthew Woods, 27, was charged with third-degree rape for the alleged 6:15 a.m. incident near 72nd Street and Central Park West, according to DNAinfo.

Sources said the 15-year-old victim said the sex was consensual. It is not clear how the suspect and alleged victim know each other.

The area was cordoned off for much of the day while police investigated.

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Thousands Gather in Central Park's Strawberry Fields To Celebrate John Lennon's 70th Birthday

October 9, 2010 - Attendees celebrating the late John Lennon's 70th birthday sang songs, placed flowers, notes, photographs and candles around the Imagine mosaic in Central Park's Strawberry Fields throughout the day and into the night. Photos: (Top) Tina Fineberg/AP:(Below) © Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on Images to enlarge.

Manhattan 

By Geoffrey Croft

Thousands of fans of the late John Lennon from around the world paid their respects in Central Park's Strawberry fields on what would have been his seventieth birthday on Saturday. 

Attendees sang songs, placed flowers, notes, photographs, lit candles and reminisced. They gathered around the black and white circular marble Imagine mosaic near W. 72nd Street not far the Dakota apartments where the singer, his wife Yoko and son Sean lived.  The former Beatle and his family would visit Central Park often and walk on the very spot that now serves as a memorial to him.

On March 26, 1981, the City Council adopted legislation naming this area of Central Park Strawberry Field - named such after the popular 1967 Beatles song -  and designated a 2.5 acre landscape. 

Since its creation in 1985, Strawberry Fields has become a popular spot for Beatles fans to gather year–round. People also gathered there to mourn the loss of fellow Beatle George Harrison who died on November 29,  2001.  

On Saturday Lennon's first wife, Cynthia and, their son, Julian, unveiled a sculpture celebrating his life  in a park overlooking the River Mersey in the northwest English city of Liverpool where the singer-songwriter and his fellow Beatles were born. Hundreds of people gathered at the city centre's Chavasse Park to watch the pair cut a ribbon to reveal the statue,  called "Peace and Harmony." The sculpture, which features a colourful globe with doves flying above it, was designed by 19-year-old American artist Lauren Voiers. The sculpture was commissioned by a US arts organization, the Global Peace Initiative. The inscription reads 'Peace on Earth for the Conservation of Life. In Harmony of John Lennon 1940-1980.'

"We come here with our hearts to honour Dad and to pray for peace and say thank you to each and every one of you, and everybody involved in the celebrations today," said Julian Lennon, 47.

Lennon's widow,  Yoko Ono and former Beatles Drummer Ringo Star remembered  the late singer by attending the lighting of the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER in Reykjavik, Iceland. They participated in a benefit concert with son Sean.

By night fall fans had completely surrounded the  Imagine mosaic.   

Birthday well-wishers from around the world, old and young, sang and played Beatles songs throughout the day and into the night.  

Strawberry Fields,  located on the west side of Central Park near 72nd Street is a living tribute to singer,  songwriter,  and social activist John Lennon (1940–1980) who was was tragically murdered on December 8,  1980. This area of Central Park was named in 1981,  and the re-landscaped Strawberry Fields and was dedicated in 1985.

Both of Mr. Lennon's children, Julian and Sean attended the October 9, 1985 dedication ceremony on what would have been his  forty-fifth birthday, 

(L-R) Mayor Ed Koch, Sean Lennon, Henry Stern, Yoko Ono, and City Council president Andrew Stein attend the Strawberry Fields dedication on October 9, 1985, on what would have been the late Beatle's forty-fifth birthday. John Lennon's first son Julian also attended the ceremony. (Photo by Daniel McPartlin)

In 1984, Yoko Ono contributed $500,000 to redesign and renovate Strawberry Fields, and an equivalent amount for an ongoing maintenance endowment. Thanks in part to a donation by Lennon's widow landscape architect Bruce Kelly was able to oversee the area's renovation. Two highlights of the landscape, the Garden of Peace and the Imagine monument, were created during this period of improvement (1984-1985).

Strawberry Fields is located just yards away from John Lennon and Yoko Ono's home, the Dakota Apartments, where Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980.

Using Yoko Ono's 1984 funding for the improvement of Strawberry Fields, Bruce Kelly designed the Garden of Peace. This contemplative space, fashioned in harmony with the original vision of Central Park creators Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, abounds with shrubs, trees, flowers, and rocks donated by 150 nations around the world.

As part of the Garden of Peace constructed during the 1984 repairs and developments, Neopolitan artisans crafted a circular black and white marble mosaic impressed with the word "Imagine" at its center and donated it to the park.

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