Cops have arrested a man seen on video stalking, then chasing a woman into her Queens workplace, leaving her so terrified she couldn’t sleep at night, officials said Friday.
“Hey, [you’re] cute,” Jonathan Siguncia, 22, told his victim in a subway car before allegedly following the 48-year-old federal worker off the train, trailing her to the Jamaica, Queens, federal building where she works and beating her before she bravely fought him off.
Chilling surveillance video recovered from the scene of the March attack shows a man following and then chasing the woman as she ran into her building, police said.
The relieved victim said she picked the suspect from a photo lineup.
“The NYPD had a tip once the news came out,” the woman told the Daily News. “It seems like the tip they got was the same guy.
“I would never forget that face,” she said.
Even with the suspect off the street, the woman said she still feels unsafe going back to work because nothing has been done to increase security at the building.
“Is this going to happen again? Should I be worried if I go back to work?” she said. “How am I supposed to protect myself if security isn’t doing their job? It’s overwhelming to be in this situation.”
The victim said she is seeing doctors and therapists regularly to manage the physical and emotional fallout from the attack.
“I hope that this never happens to anybody out there, any female. It’s very traumatic,” she said. “I’m still going through it. I think about it every day. I still have nightmares. It’s not easy.”
The woman had just boarded a Queens-bound J train about 6:15 a.m. on March 19 at her local Brooklyn stop when a man insisted on sitting beside her, she said.
“What was strange to me was the whole train was empty,” the victim, who asked that her name not be used, previously told the Daily News. “There were only four people, including him. Why would he want to sit next to me when there’s seats all around?”
NYPD/DCPI
Police released surveillance footage of a suspect seen stalking a woman on a Queens street, then chasing her. (NYPD)
“The moment he sat there he started staring at me,” she added. “I could feel him breathing on me. So I got up and went to the next car and when I looked back he was right behind me. I was like, What’s the problem with this guy? What does he want?”
The woman started fearing for her safety as he peppered her with unwanted flattery and followed her off the train.
“When he got next to me I was like, ‘Why are you following me?’ He answered that I looked good and I smelled good. I told him to leave me alone and to walk away. He looked me up and down like he couldn’t believe I would say that.”
After the woman left the Jamaica Center station the man tailed her all the way into the Joseph P. Addabbo Federal Building on Jamaica Ave. where she works, and beat her as she struggled to escape, she says.
“When he caught up to me and started punching me and hitting me, he hit my head against the wall, so I’ve been getting a lot of headaches. My doctor is supposed to schedule a test to determine if this is serious or not. I’m taking medication for it now.”
The gutsy victim said she fought back, breaking her nails in the process. She said she was also left with bruises on her arms.
Cops recovered surveillance images of the man chasing the victim and released them to the media, asking anyone with information about his whereabouts to call authorities.
Siguncia, from Queens, was arrested Thursday evening and charged with stalking and aggravated harassment. It was not immediately disclosed how cops identified him. His arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court was pending.
