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A 20-year-old woman who was brutally groped outside her Brooklyn apartment is the 12th victim in a series of brazen sex assaults in the borough dating back to March, cops said yesterday.
“Yes, we are concerned about it,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters earlier in the day about the “Dirty Dozen’’ attacks. “The Special Victims squad is very much involved in an all-out effort to arrest this individual or individuals.
“We’ve done a lot of canvasses. We are going through pictures. We are going through motion pictures,” Kelly said of detectives’ efforts to identify up to three perpetrators who have groped 11 women and raped one in areas near Prospect Park and in Sunset Park.
“We understand that citizens in the area are concerned,” said Kelly, whose officers not only have beefed up patrols in those areas but have taken the unusual step of showing video stills of the suspects to people they’ve arrested recently who might know the criminals.
Kelly today said that last night’s molestation of an 18-year-old woman at around 8 p.m. in Sunset Park is not part of the pattern of a dozen prior attacks. Kelly said that latest incident had been ruled out as related to the dozen because attacker was described as being in his 30s — not in his 20s, as the prior assailants had been described.
The latest, 12th confirmed incident occurred at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday on Vanderbilt Street in Windsor Terrace when the young woman was walking home after visiting a friend.
A man described as about 5-foot-4 to 5-foot-6 and Hispanic — a description that matches that of the assailants in the prior cases — approached the woman and grabbed her from behind, cops and her sister said.
“He just grabbed her by the breasts, and she pulled forward,” her sister said yesterday.
“She said she didn’t know what to do and she started yelling and blacked out.
“My mother’s disabled. By the time she made it down the stairs, it was eight minutes later and my sister was crying on the steps.
“What I could hear through the tears last night, she screamed and said she was happy she got him off of her and that she didn’t get raped,” said the victim’s sister. “She just doesn’t want this to happen to someone else.
“None of us have slept yet,” the sister said as the victim spoke with detectives.
The police commissioner said the victim “didn’t get a clear look at his face” and noted that in the prior attacks, the perps have tried “to make a special effort to see to it that their face is covered.”
Veronica Mendez, 31, a receptionist who lives nearby with her three kids, said, “Right now, I’m scared and surprised … I’m shocked the police haven’t caught him yet.
“I also work in the city and have to come home, and it’s isolated on these streets, and it’s going to get dark earlier.
“It’s not right. I feel so bad for the girl, and can’t imagine how she feels right now.”
In last night’s attack, the teen was exiting the subway at 36th Street and Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park and walked several blocks when the perv, again described as a Hispanic man in his 20s, grabbed her butt from behind, cops said.