MANHATTAN — An East Village rapist who attacked a woman in the stairwell of her building also groped and tried to kiss a teenage girl in a separate incident, police said.
Surveillance video shows the man, dressed in a long coat with a Yankees cap, follow a 19-year-old girl through the lobby of her FDR Drive building and into an elevator, where he attacked her about 12:45 a.m. on Dec. 16, according to the NYPD.
She fought him off and briefly managed to escape the elevator but he caught up to her and groped her again before fleeing, police said.
NYPD officials did not provide a cross street of where the attack took place for privacy reasons.
Police believe the same man was responsible for a similar incident in which he followed a 22-year-old woman into the stairwell of her Sixth Street building on Dec. 28 and attacked her.
That woman was treated for minor injuries at Beth Israel Hospital, officials said.
Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).
