NEW YORK, (Reuters) – New York Mayor Bill de Blasio yesterday denounced the rape of a woman by five men at a Brooklyn playground, pledging police would work to swiftly apprehend the suspects in “this vicious crime.”
Police said on Saturday the men took turns raping the 18-year-old woman at the playground operated by the New York City Parks Department in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn just after 9 p.m. on Thursday. One man pointed a gun at the father and told him to leave, police said. After the father left, the men each assaulted the woman, police said. They fled when her father returned a short while later, accompanied by two officers.
The woman was treated at a hospital and released, police said.
Police released surveillance video taken in a nearby bodega that they said showed the five suspects before the attack. The video depicts a group of black men in jackets and sweatshirts talking and laughing inside the store.