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Police Arrest Two Suspects in Central Park Mugging

By Gwynne Hogan | May 19, 2015 8:10pm
Central Park Hecksher Playground Robbery
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NYPD

MANHATTAN — Police have arrested two teens they say were involved in a Central Park mugging two weekends ago.

Jeffrey Valdez, 17, and a 14-year-old girl whose name was not released, were taken into custody by police on Tuesday for the attack, the NYPD said.

The two suspects were with about a dozen other teens when they got into an argument with a teenage couple at the Heckscher Playground in the southern part of the park about 9:30 p.m. on May 9, police said.

One girl in the group punched a 17-year-old girl in the face after threatening her with a “taser type device,” according to the NYPD.

While the victim was being attacked, a boy in the group took her purse and removed her iPhone, police said.

Valdez was charged with robbery, menacing and weapons possession. The girl was charged with assault, menacing, robbery and weapons possession, police said. 

The pair was being held at the Central Park Precinct as of Tuesday evening, police said. 

An investigation into the attack is ongoing, but police feel they have the two main suspects, an NYPD spokesman said.

Attorney information for the suspects was not immediately available.

The incident was one of three unrelated robberies that took place in Central Park over the weekend of May 9 and 10. No arrests have been made in the other two incidents, police said.