Armed Robbery, Rape, Attempted Rape on 82nd Street in Bay Ridge

Update: as of this morning, March 10, there is a suspect, Abdallah Elawar, 22, in custody. He lives only about two blocks away from 82nd Street.  Police identified him based on his resemblance to the man shown in the recently-released surveillance video -- and based on a lineup.  Elawar was known from his prior contacts with the NYPD, including an alleged statutory rape.   

Update: view Bay Ridge Journal photos of the area where the crimes were committed.

Within a 20-minute period on Friday, February 25, a man robbed and sexually attacked two women around 82nd Street in Bay Ridge.

It was hard to tell, from the early accounts, what the cross streets were. They were variously identified as Fort Hamilton Parkway, 5th, 6th and 7th Avenues, between 82nd and 83rd Streets.

This updated account from the Brooklyn Paper placed both incidents on 82nd between 5th and 6th Avenues, but later accounts placed the second assault between 6th and 7th Avenues, between 82nd and 83rd Streets.

The first assault:  at 11:20 PM on 82nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, the man came up behind a 44-year-old woman as she entered the front door of her apartment building, put a gun either to her head or her back, and forced her inside the building.

He smacked her in the face with the gun, threatened to kill her, took her cell phone and her money, and tried to rape her.

She fought him off.

The second assault:  twenty minutes later, at 11:40 PM, the same man pulled a gun on a 22-year-old woman, somewhere in the area between 82nd and 83rd Streets and 6th and 7th Avenues, took her into an alleyway behind an apartment building, raped her, and stole her cell phone.

The man was described as white, between 5'6" and 5'9" and between 150 and 170 pounds, and was wearing a dark windbreaker, blue hoodie and tan/grey pants.

The NYPD has released this composite sketch of the suspect [NY 1.]

Early coverage from WPIX included a grainy surveillance video of the rapist wearing the hoodie, but this recently-released surveillance video gives a much clearer view of the dark-haired assailant, without the hoodie [CBS.]

This is a very dangerous man who will attack again. If you know who he is, call CrimeStoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.  The call is confidential.

You can also submit a tip to www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text CRIMES (274637) then enter TIP577.

More from CBS.

More  from the Brooklyn Paper.

More from NY1.

More from the Daily News.

More from L Magazine.

More from the New York Times.

There have apparently not been any reported rapes in Bay Ridge since 2008, when a woman was raped at her apartment building on Fort Hamilton Parkway and 93rd Street.  The perpetrator was caught on surveillance video. A homeless man picked up on a shoplifting charge later gave him up to the police.  Neighbors in the victim's building had seen him hanging around in the days before the rape took place, but although they took note of the stranger, they didn't ask what his business was.

A female NYPD officer was reportedly raped in her apartment on Bay Ridge Avenue in 2007. That case seems to have gone cold.

Last May, a man tried to abduct and sexually assault a 12-year-old girl at 67th Street and 12th Avenue in Dyker Heights, but she got away.