Police sketch of suspect in both attacks. (
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A second woman was attacked in Riverside Park a mere 20 minutes after a bright-eyed Barnard College student was left bloodied and unconscious in an iPod mugging — and investigators believe that the same suspect is responsible for both incidents.
“We believe it was committed by the same individual,” a police source told The Post. “Based upon circumstances and timeline, we believe there is enough of a possibility he is the same attacker.”
Cops say it was about 6:20 a.m. when a 48-year-old woman walking her dog near West 98th Street and Riverside Drive was approached from behind, hit in the head and thrown to the ground.
Once down, she was viciously kicked in the chest and stomach before the assailant fled, police added.
The woman didn’t report the incident and was instead treated for “bumps and bruises” by her doctor, sources told The Post.
She didn’t tell cops about the attack until hearing the news Wednesday night about 19-year-old Marisa Cortright’s similar horrific ordeal, sources added.
Yesterday the woman met with investigators and provided a physical description of her assailant to a police sketch artist.
He is a 5-foot-8, thin black man with black hair, sporting blue shorts with blue and white boxers. His sketch was released today by authorities.
Cops say the same man beat up and robbed Cortright, a freshman at Barnard College, at about 6 a.m. near the West 120th Street tennis courts. The two crime scenes are about 20 blocks apart.
Cortright, of Salem, Ore., was found on a bench by a parkgoer and is being treated at St. Luke’s Hospital for bleeding on the brain, a fractured cheekbone and facial cuts.
The sketch cops released Wednesday is of a person of interest — possibly a witness — seen leaving the park following the attack on Cortright.
He is a 6-foot-2, heavyset black man in his mid-40s, seen wearing a bright blue, long-sleeved T-shirt and black pants.
Anyone who may have been in the area or has any information regarding either incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).