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Chinatown Rape Victim Tried to Fight Off Teenage Attackers, Officials Say

By Lisha Arino | June 4, 2015 11:07am
Teens Arrested for Manhattan Sex Assault, Police Say
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NYPD

CHINATOWN — The victim of a brutal sexual attack in Chinatown resisted her three teenage assailants but was unable to fight them off, according to a criminal complaint.

Surveillance video from the Eldridge Street internet café where Eric Pek, Emanuel Burrowes and Sanat Asliev met the 33-year-old victim captured the teens  “repeatedly touching” the “barely conscious” woman as she tried to push them away, according to a criminal complaint from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

It wasn't immediately clear why she was "barely conscious," or for how long. It also wasn't clear whether she knew her attackers.

All three 16-year-olds were charged with rape, attempted rape and robbery for the early-morning Monday incident, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Bail was set at $100,000 cash or bond for each defendant. They are due in court on Friday.

The teenagers’ attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the criminal complaint, the group pulled the victim out of the café and led her to a nearby stairwell, where the victim recalled the men surrounding her. One of the men pressed his genitals against her while the others repeatedly hit her, the complaint said.

Burrowes admitted to having sex with the woman while the Asliev told authorities he tried to, the complaint said.

After the attack, the woman realized she was alone in the stairwell, with her shirt inside out and her camisole and underpants missing, according to the court document. Her driver’s license, credit cards, keys, money and cell phone were also gone.

Sources said the woman’s belongings were used to track down her apartment, but Pek, Burrowes and Asliev ran away when they realized someone was inside. A surveillance video released by police shows the trio calmly entering the building, then running out of it a minute later.

The woman was taken to an area hospital to be treated for her injuries, authorities said.

Three young men all lived in a group home run by Boys Town in Park Slope, sources said. The home was shut down following the incident, according to the Administration for Children’s Services.

The agency will meet with the organization’s regional and national management and will keep the facility closed until Boys Town shows it can safety supervise youth at the location, according to an ACS spokesman. Pek, Asliev and Burrowes were the only residents at the home, according to the New York Times, which first reported the closure.

Boys Town did not immediately respond to a request for comment.