Suspect’s First Assault Under Internal Affairs Investigation
First, an explanation as to why we had so much coverage about this yesterday when none of the reported assaults were in Bensonhurst:
Yesterday, I decided to report on a rape suspect wanted by police who had allegedly been preying on women throughout Central and Southwestern Brooklyn. The attacks were in Sunset Park, Bay Ridge and Park Slope; neighborhoods either adjacent to Bensonhurst or relatively accessible from it by mass transit. I thought it was a good bet that the suspect would be traveling through here next.
It wasn’t a huge surprise to me, other than the initial shock of sharing my quiet neighborhood with a rape suspect, when I read in this morning’s Post that William Giraldo resides in Bensonhurst.
According to the Post, the first attempted rape, which took place on 16th street in Park Slope, was caught on a neighbor’s surveillance camera. That attack is currently under investigation by the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau.
After initially being unable to find the suspect or victim, police refused the neighbor’s video of the attack and “notified 911 that the call was ‘unfounded’.”
Later, the victim called the police but, when she followed up on the case days later, was told it was closed. This begs the question of whether this past Saturday’s attack could have been prevented with a more diligent preliminary investigation.
“Ray was telling the police, ‘I have the tape, I have the tape,’ ” neighbor Donald Harrington told the Post. “But cops said they weren’t interested.”
After speaking with a female detective it was determined that the attempted attack was a sexual assault. Weeks later, the tape was recovered from the neighbor by police.
Here’s a link to a Daily News article from April which includes the neighbor’s video: