MANHATTAN — A teenager was arrested Wednesday after attacking eight women in a five day crime spree around Manhattan that involved sexual assaults and robberies, the NYPD said.
Kalief Jackson, 15, attacked the women, sometimes at gunpoint, in the incidents that spanned Jan. 15 through Jan. 19 in neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, Upper West Side, and Harlem, police said.
The teen groped one woman, dragged another to a secluded area and tried to rape her, and ultimately stole a loot of iPhones, a Canada Goose coat, a debit card, a MetroCard, and at least $54, the NYPD said.
Jackson faced charges of attempted rape, sexual abuse, burglary, and robbery, police said.
None of the women, aged 23 to 34, were injured, according to police.
The NYPD first released footage of Jackson, which showed him calmly walking down the street, after he allegedly tried to rape a 34-year-old woman inside an East 116th Street apartment building about 3:40 a.m. on Sunday Jan. 19.
In the East Harlem building, he told the woman that he had a gun before covering her mouth and forcing her to an isolated area inside where he then shoved her to the ground and tried to rape her, police said.
The woman screamed and broke free, so Jackson fled, the NYPD said.
About 17 hours later and at the end of his spree, he mugged a 24-year-old woman for her iPhone 4S in a stairwell of 5 West 102nd St., near Central Park West, police said.
Two days earlier on Jan. 17, Jackson followed a 28-year-old woman into of an apartment building on Grand Street on the Lower East Side about 7 p.m., the NYPD said.
He stopped her on a stairwell inside by pretending to have a gun and demanding cash, police said. After she handed over $4, he allegedly touched her inappropriately and forced her to reciprocate.
Then 90 minutes later, Jackson hopped in a Stuyvesant Town elevator just as the doors were closing and told the 24-year-old woman inside that he had a gun in his waistband, police said.
"I'm going to shoot you," he said before counting down, the NYPD said. She screamed so Jackson ran off.
In the other four attacks, three of which took place on Jan. 16 only hours apart, he mugged women for cash, phones, a coat, and cards, the NYPD said.
Jackson was originally suspected in an additional three robberies, but was not immediately charged with those. A police spokeswoman said their investigation is ongoing and that he would still be part of additional lineups.
