BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | A man passing a woman on a West Village staircase early Sunday morning slugged her before grabbing her genitals, police said.
The incident reportedly occurred March 10 around 4:30 a.m. inside a residential building in the vicinity of Grove and Bleecker Sts.
The victim, 20, was going upstairs, while the unidentified man was heading downstairs, according to a police spokesperson. As they passed each other, the guy grabbed her. The woman yelled out for help, and the man then punched her in the face and shoved her against the wall before fondling her about her lower torso.
The suspect then fled the building on foot in an unknown direction.
Police said the victim suffered bruising to her face and was treated at a nearby hospital and released.
The suspect is described as dark-complexioned, roughly in his 30s, between 5-feet-11-inches and 6-feet tall, and last seen wearing a dark-colored hooded coat and dark-colored sneakers.
Asked if the woman lived in the building, the police spokesperson said it wasn’t immediately clear why she was there or what she was doing there, but that she apparently may not live in New York State based on her having an out-of-state address.
It wasn’t immediately known why the man was in the building.
Police released a photo as well as a video of the alleged suspect captured by a surveillance camera.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Tips can also be submitted on the CrimeStoppers Web site at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on Twitter @NYPDTips or by texting to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.
