Arrest Soho sex attacker
Detectives arrested a Brooklyn man on Fri. July 15 in connection with the attempted rape and robbery of a woman, 74, in her Thompson St. apartment on Tues. July 12.
The suspect, Ralph J. Gardella, 35, of 405 Berry St., in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was arrested as he emerged from the subway station at 104th St. and Liberty Ave. in Queens after calls to the police TIPS line from people who recognized him from store surveillance camera images made public two days after the event.
Police charged Gardella with forcing his way into the victim’s apartment on Tuesday night, attempting to rape her and then chocking her until she passed out. When she recovered, the suspect forced her to given him her ATM card and fled, according to the charges.
Detectives examining an image recorded the next day by a surveillance camera at an ATM identified the suspect dressed in a gray T-shirt and carrying a shopping bag from a footwear store, police said. A full-face image of the suspect from the store surveillance camera was made public and resulted in a phone tip that the suspect frequented the Queens neighborhood where he was eventually arrested, police said.
He was being held on burglary and robbery as well as attempted rape charges, police said.
Henry St. homicide
Police found the body of Juan Crispo, 75, in his second-floor apartment at 173 Henry St. on the Lower East Side on Saturday morning July 16 after neighbors reported a foul smell. The medical examiner’s office declared the death a homicide after finding the victim had been beaten with a blunt instrument and stabbed in the chest.
Seek bank robber
Police last Saturday called for public help in finding a bank robber who struck at a North Fork bank at 100 W. 26th St. in Chelsea on April 28 at 1 p.m. The suspect was described as a thin white man about age 45, 6 feet, 1 inch tall, weighing about 150 pounds, with a pockmarked face and unshaven at the time of the robbery. He was wearing a blue baseball cap, blue jeans, black shirt with short sleeves, a leather jacket and white sneakers with a blue logo. Tips should be phoned in to 1-800-577-TIPS.
Gory, but no crime
Police from the Sixth Precinct who went to 14 Horatio St. on July 12 after bloody bed sheets were found discarded at the building determined that there was no crime involved. “It turned out that a resident came home intoxicated and got the sheets bloody after he fell and injured himself and then threw the sheets out,” said Officer Tim Duffy, of the precinct’s community affairs office.
Albert Amateau
