For all its sun-dappled spaces and lush trees, Queens’ Kissena Corridor Park has a dark side — thatches of dense, dark woods many people avoid.
It was there, under a dense canopy of leaves that covers the ground in inky, elongated shadows, a 13-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a knife-wielding tattooed man on Thursday, leaving rattled parkgoers wondering what other terrors lay hidden among the trees.
“It is dark there,” Paul Kim said about the secluded path where the afternoon attack took place. “I always thought they should put some kind of surveillance in there or block it altogether.
“Generally, you don’t see kids hanging out there,” he said of the dark trail. “Most kids probably get creeped [out] in there. Even for me, I’d be like looking around.”
On Saturday, the NYPD had placed portable flood lights along the path and was patrolling the trail on horseback. Every few yards, a wanted poster was posted with a sketch of the sexual predator involved in the attack, showing the intricate tattoo of a horned red-eyed wild boar he had on his chest.
“He probably knew to wait around that area,” Kim, 48, said. “We want this guy captured.”
Cops were actively hunting for the assailant on Saturday, hoping that DNA from a water bottle left at the scene could help identify him.
The creep approached the 13-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy just as they finished playing soccer near the corner of Colden St. and Kalmia Ave. and ordered them to follow him into the woods.
When they refused, he flashed a “large machete-style knife,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Friday.
He took the children into the park, tied their wrists together with a shoelace and sexually assaulted the girl before running off with his victims’ cellphones, cops said.
“It’s terrible,” Kim said. “It’s surprising it happened at 3 p.m. That’s just crazy.”
Visitors to Kissena Corridor Park, a narrow greenspace that connects Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to Kissena Park, said they avoid the heavily wooded areas, especially in the evenings.
“I don’t usually walk at night here,” one park visitor, who would only identify herself as Grace, told the Daily News as she looked at a wanted poster along the trail. “That would be crazy.”
Shocked by news of the attack, Grace, 77, said: “It’s hurting my heart.”
“How old is the girl? 13?” she added. “We cannot trust [anyone]. We have to be careful.”
According to recent NYPD statistics, there have been two robberies and one assault in Kissena Corridor Park as of March 31. Last year, Kissena Corridor Park played host to four robberies, two assaults and one grand larceny, cops said.
For the foreseeable future, the NYPD plans to bring in more patrols, fly drones and install cameras in the park.
There are no cameras inside the park, just at the entrances, but cops were expanding their search to recover surveillance video that could help them identify the attacker.
“We are going to go miles and miles to find video,” Kenny said.
The attacker is described as a Hispanic man in his 20s, about 5-foot-5 with curly hair and braces. He was wearing a black t-shirt, black sweatpants and red sneakers, and he was carrying a green backpack.
He spoke English with a heavy Spanish accent, Kenny said. He added that cops were trying to determine if the attack was linked to some kind of robbery pattern in the area.
A $10,000 reward has been offered for information that will lead to the suspect’s capture.
“This incident is a parent’s nightmare,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said Friday. “All the community should be very upset about this and be willing to come out and help the police department as we try to resolve this issue.”
Anyone with information regarding the attack and the attacker’s whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
