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Queens Teen Nabbed in Brutal Brick Attack Faces Attempted Murder Charge

By Jess Wisloski | April 13, 2013 4:15pm

DITMARS — Police arrested a suspect they said was behind the bloody attack on a young woman in a Queens alleyway after a tipster recognized the man from a surveillance video, cops said.

Omer Khogali, 17, of 81st Street in Ditmars, was arrested Friday in connection with the beating attack on 16-year-old Michelle Rodriguez, of Astoria, who was smashed in the head with a brick Tuesday night in an alleyway next to 22-63 43rd St. about 10:45 p.m., cops said.

After striking Rodriguez, video surveillance allegedly caught Khogali fleeing the scene and dropping something near the intersection of 43rd Street and 23rd Avenue — a bloodied brick was later recovered there, the Queens District Attorney's complaint said.

Khogali was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Sunday and faces up to 25 years in prison on charges of attempted murder in the second degree, first-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon, the District Attorney's office said. He was held without bail. 

"The defendant is accused of a particularly vicious and brutal assault that has left a young girl clinging to life," said Queens D.A. Robert Brown. "The case will be vigorously prosecuted."

Surveillance footage released by cops showed the suspect clad in a dark jacket, white T-shirt, and black sneakers running from the scene, and the man's identity was allegedly recognized by someone who watched the surveillance video that police put out on Thursday.

According to the D.A. complaint, a witness allegedly saw Khogali pulling on the car door handles of several vehicles in the area, before hearing someone scream, at which point he "hit them with a brick to shut them up."

Rodriguez was taken to Elmhurst Hospital and remained in critical but stable condition with head injuries, but unable to communicate, cops said on Saturday.