West News Wire: Police said a 43-year-old woman reported being raped while jogging along Manhattan’s West Side Highway on Thursday morning.
According to the New York Police Department, the woman claimed that at at 5:30 a.m., a man grabbed her from behind, choked her, and knocked her to the ground as she was out for a jog near Pier 45.
According to authorities, she claimed that he sexually assaulted her, took her phone and pocketbook, and then escaped on foot.
Police say the victim flagged down another jogging who made a 911 call.
Police reported that she was transported to a hospital in stable condition.
Police announced the arrest of 29-year-old Carl Phanor on Thursday in connection with the jogger’s rape. Phanor has also been charged in the March 27 rape of a different woman in a nearly identical location. Additionally, police said Phanor has been charged in a third incident, an attack on a woman on the East Side of Manhattan. He is facing charges of sexually motivated robbery, grand larceny, strangulation, predatory sexual assault and criminal sex act.
Police said Phanor is undomiciled.
Law enforcement sources told news reporters earlier that a suspect was apprehended after he used the victim’s credit card at a Target store in Midtown Manhattan.
Gabrielle Sumkin, who identified herself as the jogger who called 911, told news reporters she was on her usual running route when she noticed the victim, who she said appeared to be in distress. She said the victim had blood on her arm and elbows and was covering her eyes with her hand.
The 23-year-old said the victim could barely speak. Sumkin said, while she was on the phone with 911, the woman kept repeating, “I need help.
She said she didn’t want to press the woman about what happened, and said she left the scene once first responders arrived. Sumkin said it wasn’t until news reports came out that she learned the woman had been raped.
Sumkin said she was sickened when she found out, and excused herself from work to go on a walk and cry.
“It’s disgusting. I’m a staunch feminist. I support women,” she said. “People who commit crimes like that are at the absolute bottom of my list.”
