The police are investigating a reported rape in Brooklyn's Prospect Park early this morning. Newsday has the details so far:
A woman in her 30s says she was attacked near the ballfields in the park at about 2 a.m. The woman told police she was walking with her boyfriend when they were confronted by a man who said he had a gun.
Details were sketchy, but police said the woman ran off, but later encountered the suspect, who raped her. The boyfriend, meanwhile, had also run off and may have lost contact with the woman.
NY1 spoke to some women in the park about safety this morning. One said she takes precautions: "I don’t think things happen all the time, but I don’t want to be the next one that it’s going to happen to. So, I think the park is pretty safe. I feel very sorry for this woman. That’s awful.”
Last year, some attacks in Prospect Park raised questions about whether the police were patrolling enough. And back in 2003, during a rash of violence in Prospect Park, a man raped an elderly woman and then beat up a 33-year-old woman while trying to rape her. And here are stats for the 78th Precinct (PDF), which includes Prospect Park; crime is down versus last year.
