A SUSPECT accused of abducting a nine-year-old girl in a supermarket was killed when he crashed his car while attempting to evade police on Friday.
Wayne Noel, 64, had been the subject of an intense 18-hour manhunt after he allegedly abducted and molested a nine-year-old girl from a supermarket the previous evening.
The horror began to unfold just before 7:30 pm on Thursday.
The young girl, who was shopping at a Key Foods store with her grandmother in Queens Village, New York, was left unattended for a few minutes while her grandmother used the restroom.
During that brief window, Noel approached the child and chillingly commanded her to “get in front of me,” before violently dragging her by the hair out of the store and into his grey Honda, according to police.
Police said the incident was also captured on the store’s security cameras.
Noel allegedly then drove the girl just seven blocks before stopping to sexually assault her in the vehicle.
A Good Samaritan who happened to pass by attempted to intervene, but Noel managed to escape with the girl still in the car.
It is almost unfathomable that such evil could take hold in a city we call home.
Kaz Daughtry
Shockingly, he returned to the Key Foods where he allegedly assaulted the girl a second time before abandoning her on the street and fleeing the scene.
The NYPD quickly sprang into action, mobilizing every available detective to track down the predator.
CCTV footage from the supermarket provided a clear image of Noel, allowing police to quickly identify Noel as their suspect.
In a press conference late Thursday night, Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry condemned Noel as the “epitome of evil” and vowed that the NYPD would stop at nothing to bring him to justice.
“It is almost unfathomable that such evil could take hold in a city we call home,” Daughtry declared.
“The NYPD will not rest until this fiend is locked up behind iron bars,” Daughtry said.
The breakthrough in the case, however, came on Friday afternoon.
Officers located Noel’s vehicle on 90th Avenue in Queens.
As police attempted to pull him over, Noel refused to comply, instead stepping on the gas and initiating a high-speed chase through the borough.
Noel blasted through a stop sign and T-boned a red SUV at the intersection of 212th Street, injuring both himself and the other driver.
Noel was rushed to New York Presbyterian-Queens Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Noel’s death has brought an end to a tense and terrifying chapter for the Queens community.
He had been arrested four previous times, including for a 2022 incident eerily similar to Thursday’s abduction.
In that case, Noel allegedly threatened a woman with a knife on Queens Boulevard and forced her into the same grey Honda he used in the recent attack in what police believe was an attempt to rape her.
Fortunately, the woman managed to escape before any further harm could be done.
Authorities are continuing their investigation into Noel’s background, with some reports indicating that he may have been employed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, though this has yet to be confirmed.
“We had the greatest detectives in the world working on this,” said Daughtry.
“This was solved in less than 18 hours, but more importantly, we gave just a little piece of dignity back to this young survivor,” he said.
