NEW YORK — Residents of a New York City neighborhood are being credited with the arrest of an Ecuadorian man for the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl, a crime that the city’s police commissioner said “shocked our entire city.”
Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi, 25, was awaiting a court hearing following his arrest Tuesday morning outside a deli in Corona, Queens.
He was accused of raping the teenager last Thursday in Kissena Park, Queens, after allegedly using a knife to approach the girl and a 13-year-old boy who was walking with her.
Law enforcement officials said at a news conference that community members detained Inga-Landi until police arrived, although he fought them off.
Commissioner Edward A. Caban of the New York Police Department said the rape “shocked our entire city.”
“Our city was united to get justice for the victim and her family,” he added.
Joe Kenny, chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, said Inga-Landi confessed, saying he had a drug problem, that he found the knife he used in the attack and that “this was the first time he had done something like this.” .”
Kenny said the suspect also identified himself in a video investigators showed him. The criminal charges filed against him included rape, sexual abuse, predatory sexual assault resulting in serious injury, robbery, kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child.
No attorney was listed as representing Inga-Landi in the court filings. The Ecuadorian consulate did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Kenny said community members, including a landlord who recalled that Inga-Landi had tried to rent a room from him two weeks ago, provided “crucial information” while the police department saturated the area with detectives and distributed photos and a video of the suspect in social media.
The community response, even before the arrest, was so strong that police knew Inga-Landi’s identity, accessed her Facebook page and obtained a “sharp” sketch along with photographs and videos, Kenny said.
He said local residents who lived on the block where the arrest took place assured him that once he was located he could not go anywhere, apparently even using a belt to keep his feet together.
Kenny said at least 10 people held him there until police arrived.
Angela Sauretti, 23, told The Daily Beast that she spotted Inga-Landi, wearing a black hoodie, at the deli and held him over the head when he tried to run away.
“He said, ‘Let me explain!’ I’m like, ‘There’s nothing to explain. You’re a rapist,’” she recalled.
Sauretti said Inga-Landi crawled under a car “like a cat,” but community members surrounded him to prevent his escape.
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