River Park rapist Jonathan Stewart
‘WE CORNERED HIM’: Parks Officers Daniel Murphy (left) and Luis Cabezas wait at a station house after helping nab accused Hudson River Park rapist Jonathan Stewart (inset). (
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If it weren’t for these brave Parks officers, the serial sex offender accused of raping a woman in TriBeCa might still be on the loose — and ready to strike again.
The officers revealed yesterday that they cornered Jonathan Stewart, 25, and held him until the NYPD arrived.
“We were in hot pursuit of him. He had nowhere to go,” Parks Enforcement Patrol Officer Daniel Murphy said during a safety rally in Hudson River Park yesterday in his first words since the attack.
He and partner Luis Cabezas had just started their 5 a.m. shift Saturday in the park when the woman came running at them naked and upset, Murphy said.
“My partner saw the suspect and took off after him,” Murphy said.
With Cabezas chasing Stewart, Murphy led the 21-year-old woman to his patrol car.
“I put her in the back seat and covered her with a blanket,” he said. “She was distraught, very distraught.”
They found the ex-con, who has a history of sex attacks and robbery, hidden on a median on West Street at North Moore Street.
“NYPD got him, but we cornered him,” Murphy recalled, adding Stewart was shirtless and said nothing after he was found hiding.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn hailed the officers at yesterday’s rally, which she organized and where marchers chanted, “Whose park? Our park!”
“You were here when we really needed you. Thank God for that,” Quinn said.
Meanwhile, sources said Stewart may be kept at Bellevue Hospital until Wednesday as he recovers from injuries he suffered in a suicide attempt Sunday morning in a Manhattan Criminal Court lockup.
If he can’t return to court, he will be arraigned in the hospital.
Stewart — who once raped a young female relative and was convicted of two other armed robberies in which he also groped his victims — is charged with rape, sex abuse, assault and forcible touching.
The attack came 10 days after a 73-year-old birdwatcher was raped in Central Park.
The rapes prompted Quinn to demand Mayor Bloomberg abandon any cuts to the NYPD’s budget.
But Bloomberg said yesterday that the city could not afford it.
“Our objective No. 1 is keeping the city safe. If I thought spending more money would make a difference, I would,” Hizzoner said. “The bottom line is we’re not going to put a cop on every street corner. We can’t afford to do that.”
He also decried the two rapes.
“It’s really hard to describe how despicable these kinds of crimes are. We’re doing everything we can,” he said.
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano, Rebecca Rosenberg and Dan MacLeod