Police praised a group of good Samaritans who captured the illegal immigrant suspected in a child rape and kidnapping and held him until officers arrived.
A group of New Yorkers who recognized the suspect in a horrific rape of a 13-year-old took him down and held him until police arrived around 1 a.m. Tuesday, cellphone video shows.
Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi, a 25-year-old from Ecuador, entered the country illegally in 2021 near Eagle Pass, Texas, police said.
He racked up an arrest in Texas and a handful of infractions in New York City before police say he cornered a pair of 13-year-olds in a Queens park, forced them into the woods at knifepoint, tied their wrists together with shoelaces and raped one of them. He allegedly stole their phones and told them to stay put for 20 minutes as he fled.
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With help from the victims, police put out a sketch of the suspect. Then a local resident spotted him on surveillance video, which police also released.
A group of men at a deli in nearby Corona recognized him and pounced. Then they held him until police arrived, according to authorities.
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"Everybody knew who we were looking for," said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny. "We had tips coming in actually naming the perpetrator. They knew who he was. They saw him out on the street."
"We saw from bodycam video at least 10 neighborhood people trying to do the right thing," Kenny added.
A local man named Jeffrey Flores was one of the first to spot him when he was captured, he told the New York Post.
"I seen him a few times — he comes to this store to buy stuff," he told the paper, speaking outside the deli where the takedown happened. "I waited for him. I waited the whole day to see if he would come up. He came at night.
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Inga-Landi was treated for minor injuries after police said he tried to fight the good Samaritans, who bound his legs with a belt to keep him from running away.
"He tried to fight back," Flores, who said he had two younger sisters and a daughter on the way, added. "He tried to run for his life, but he couldn’t. He admitted to it. He was saying, ‘Alright, alright, alright. Don’t hit me, don’t hit me.’"
The attack happened Thursday at Kissena Park, about 3 miles from where the New York Mets play at Citi Field and near the site of the 1964 World's Fair and the U.S. Open. The victim also went to school in the neighborhood.
Police described him as a male Hispanic in his 20s with braces and a tattoo of a horned animal with red eyes on his chest.
Video and photos taken of his capture show the tattoo prominently placed above his heart.
He was expected to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon on a slew of charges, including rape, kidnapping and other felonies.
As police escorted him out of the 112 Precinct building to bring him to court, an onlooker could be heard shouting, "Piece of s---" as he walked with his head down.
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The migrant had several low-level prior offenses, including subway fare jumping and drinking in public. Police said he was also involved in a domestic violence incident where no charges were filed, and he had an unspecified arrest in Texas.
"Enforcing minor crimes matters, even though the city council is trying to tell us no," Giacalone said. "It not only creates deterrence for future crimes, but it also creates the opportunity for the police to gather intelligence, in order to track people down who have done such heinous crimes like the one we just saw."
Under prior administrations, he said, a fare jumper would be arrested, taken to the precinct and fingerprinted, which often helped police solve more serious crimes.
Fox News' Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
