QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) --- A migrant from Ecuador is accused of threatening two teens with a knife and raping a 13-year-old girl in a Queens park last week, police said.
Christian Inga, 25, was charged with rape, sex abuse, robbery, kidnapping, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, and unlawful imprisonment, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
The suspect was apprehended near 108th Street and Waldron Street in Queens at around 1:10 a.m. after police acted on a 911 tip, according to the NYPD. Bystanders held him down until cops arrived at the scene. Inga fought back but the good Samaritans overpowered him, possibly using a belt to detain him, police said.
The neighbors recognized Inga from the photos police released and waited for him at a local bodega, they said. When he got there, they all "sprung into action" and grabbed the suspect. One of the neighbors then pulled Inga out of the bodega and onto the street before calling the police.
"I can explain. Please let me go back to my country. . . I can explain!" the suspect told the neighbors, they said.
Inga allegedly threatened two 13-year-old kids with a machete-like knife and tied their hands together with a shoelace before raping the young girl in Kissena Park in Flushing on June 20, authorities said.
The suspect approached the teens on a field in Kissena Park near Colden Street and Kalmia Avenue around 3 p.m. and told them to follow him into the woods, according to Kenny.
Inga then allegedly stole the victims’ phones and told them to wait for 20 minutes while he fled the scene, according to authorities. The victims, who were classmates, returned to their school to report the attack.
"These victims gave crucial information that was needed to make this arrest," Kenny said.
The suspect told police he had a drug problem and found the knife he used to threaten the teens, Kenny said. He also identified himself in video surveillance that was shown to him.
"He said this was the first time he had ever done anything like this," Kenny said.
Inga entered the United States in 2021 with a 3-year-old child. He was arrested in Texas for entering the country illegally before he was released pending a court appearance. He was living on 108th Street near the scene where he was apprehended, police said.
"A violent criminal has been taken off our streets," NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said.
His arraignment in Queens was pending.
