Arrest Made In Disturbing New York City Assault

An arrest has been made in the disturbing sexual assault on a New York City subway platform. 31-year old Jose Reyes of the Bronx, is the man seen attacking a young woman on a subway platform in Manhattan on Saturday, August 29th. The NYPD took little over a day to identify Reyes and arrest him. The details that led up to the attack are terrifying, and prove that Reyes had been lurking in the shadows preying on the woman before he ultimately assaulted her. NYPD chief of detectives Rodney Harrison explained, Reyes had been on the same train as the victim and followed her off at the Lexington Avenue and East 63 Street stop on the F train. The woman had been trying to avoid inappropriate gestures Reyes made, and as she tried to walk away Reyes punched her and pinned her to the ground. This all took place as early as 11 am as New York City train riders looked on, recording the incident. Although many people may not have agreed with pulling out a phone and recording such an incident, those videos are being touted as the saving grace that helped link the NYPD to Reyes so soon. According to Pix 11 News, the NYPD were able to use their facial recognition technology to identify Reyes. Reyes had been arrested at least 15 times before, so he was already in the NYPD’s database. When asked by reporters why Reyes attacked the woman, he said with no remorse “she wanted to get attacked, because she’s a female”.

This summer New York City has seen a dramatic increase in violent crimes. According to an article from the Wall Street Journal, former crime analyst supervisor for the NYPD Christopher Herrmann attributes the rise in crimes over the last year to the decrease in arrests. He cites that there were 82,737 arrests made between Jan. 1 and Aug. 2, a 39% decrease from the 134,661 arrests in the same period for 2019. Lack of police intervention could be the inspiration behind some of the city's bravest criminals hiking up the crime rates this summer. The arrest of Jose Reyes should start a trend of more arrests being made, to help put uneasy New Yorkers at ease.