Youth Gangs Rape 4 Women in Central Park
NEW YORK — A gang of young men roaming Central Park drenched four women in water, stripped off their clothes and sexually assaulted them Sunday evening in separate attacks that recalled the infamous 1989 “wilding” rape of a park jogger.
Police said Monday that three men were arrested on charges of sexual assault and robbery for the attacks, which involved about 15 men inside the world-famous park.
In April 1989, teenage assailants added the term “wilding” to New York’s vocabulary when they attacked and raped a Manhattan investment banker who was jogging in Central Park. The case received widespread attention and spawned much analysis of ghetto youth culture and “wilding.”
New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir, reacting to concerns about patrols in the 840-acre park used by millions of city residents and tourists, said crime was down there and he believed the current police presence was sufficient.
Police named two of those arrested as David Rowe of Hempstead, N.Y., and Tremayne Bane of Miami Beach, Fla.
Two of the victims in Sunday’s assaults were tourists from England and France and the others were from Long Island, in New York state, police said. The victims ranged in age from 16 to 28 and police said the Frenchwoman’s husband was restrained by the gang while they assaulted her.
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