Bushwick Rapist Attacks Young Woman Asleep in Her Bed

Above: Police images of the suspected rapist, courtesy of the NYPD

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — In what has to be one of the most terrifying reports of stranger rape during this year's spike in sexual assaults in the neighborhood, a 29-year-old Bushwick woman reported to police that she was raped and robbed on Monday, July 25, by a nearly 200-pound man who snuck into her apartment while she was sleeping.

The break-in occurred around 1:30 a.m. near Dekalb and Wilson avenues, one block from the M Train tracks, according to the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

"A 29-year-old female victim was sleeping when she heard her door being opened," police said in a report, "at which time an unknown male approached her displaying a silver firearm."

The attacker "then proceeded to forcibly rape the victim and remove some personal items of the victim before fleeing in an unknown direction," police said.

The young woman was treated and released at Woodhull Hospital in Bed-Stuy. (The same hospital where another young woman was treated two weeks earlier for a stranger rape near Prospect Park.)

The NYPD has released a police sketch and surveillance footage of the man who they believe is responsible, in hopes a member of the public will recognize him. (See above.) He is believed to be a black man around 34 years old, standing approximately 6-feet-1-inch tall and weighing about 195 pounds.

Tips can be called into police at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) — or, for Spanish-speakers, at 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

At least 10 stranger rapes have been reported in Brooklyn since around April — and those are just the ones the NYPD has publicized. (In early May, for example, the department never officially notified the media about two scary street rapes that occurred on the same weekend, within five minutes of each other, on the Bed-Stuy/Bushwick border.)

The July 25 break-in rape described above occurred in the NYPD's 83rd Precinct, which exclusively covers Bushwick.

In another wee-hours rape attempt in the neighborhood in late June, a man slashed his victim's throat before she was able to escape.

As of mid-July, police data showed that 19 rapes had been reported in Bushwick so far this year — 27 percent more than were reported during the same time period in 2015.

However, it's unclear how many of the victims in these cases knew their attackers.

While most categories of major crime are down across New York City so far in 2016, rapes are up 6 percent. In North Brooklyn specifically, they're up 4 percent this year, at a count of 127.

Other neighborhoods that have experienced alarming spikes in rape this year: Sunset Park, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, the Fort Greene-Clinton Hill area and the Park Slope-Prospect Heights area. (For more specific data, browse the NYPD's comprehensive new CompStat website.)

The only public statements NYPD officials have issued by way of addressing this ugly trend is to say that the rapes have mostly been domestic.