QUEENS VILLAGE, Queens (PIX11) --- A man who abducted and sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl died in a car crash during a brief police pursuit in Queens on Friday afternoon, according to the NYPD.
The suspect, identified as Wayne Neol, took the girl while she was waiting for her grandmother outside of a bathroom inside a Key Food on Jamaica Avenue in Queens Village at around 7:30 p.m. Thursday, police said.
Neol grabbed the girl by her hair, led her to his car, and drove off before forcing her to perform a sex act, police said. A good Samaritan interrupted the attack and he drove back to the store, where he assaulted the girl again, police said.
“That survivor will never be the same,” NYPD Assistant Chief Jason Savino said during a briefing on Friday.
Neol was seen fleeing the scene in a four-door Honda Civic, according to authorities.
Officers spotted the suspect in his car around 12:30 p.m. Friday at 212th Street and Hillside Avenue and tried to pull him over. They pursued him before he ran a stop sign and crashed into a Jeep Grand Cherokee two blocks away near 90th Avenue and 212th Street, according to the NYPD. The Jeep driver was not injured and remained at the scene.
Neol, 64, was taken to a hospital, where he died, police said.
Neol has four prior arrests, the police said. The most recent was for an alleged robbery in Queens. Police said he grabbed a woman on the street, forced her into the same vehicle, drove to another location, and robbed her at knifepoint.
Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the NYC area for more than a decade. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
