[UPDATE BELOW] A 37-year-old woman was badly beaten during a rape attempt on the Upper West Side late Wednesday night.
The victim had just gotten out of an Uber in the vicinity of Central Park West and 84th Street around 11 p.m. Wednesday night, ABC 7 reports, when she was approached by an unidentified man who tried to engage her in conversation. When she ignored him, police say he threw her down on the sidewalk and began beating her.
According to the NYPD, the man "punched, stomped and bit her about face/head." The attacker then tried to remove her clothing, but fled to Columbus Avenue when investigators say "something startled" him.
ABC 7 reports that the victim sustained a skull fracture and multiple bruises to her body. She was taken to Lenox Hill hospital and is in stable condition, according to police.
The NYPD's Special Victims Squad is investigating the incident and released the security camera video below. The suspect is described as approximately six feet tall, 200 pounds, and bald. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, yellow or khaki shorts, black and white sneakers, and eyeglasses.
Update: On Thursday night the NYPD announced the arrest of suspect Desmond Smith, 32, who resides on West 83rd Street. He's charged with attempted rape, strangulation, and assault. The address provided by police corresponds to the address for a men's homeless shelter, The Skyway Men's Shelter.
A doorman who works across the street from where the attack occurred, Ernest Pjedri, told CBS 2 he heard the woman scream and went to find out what was happening.
“She was on the floor and he was on top of her," Pjedri told CBS 2. "He was hitting her, basically, with hand or foot, I couldn’t see that, but also in the way I saw him pulling off the clothes."
Pjedri said he took a photo of the man with his cellphone, and the suspect was distracted by the flash: "He left her and was coming behind me."
According to Pjedri, the man tried to tell him the woman owed him money.
