ELMHURST — A 14-year-old girl who triggered a manhunt for sex attacker she claimed groped her on her way to school Tuesday has changed her story under questioning, police said.
The eighth grader initially said a mohawked man followed her for nearly 10 blocks as she walked to school about 7:45 a.m. before groping her at 47th Avenue and 76th Street, an NYPD spokeswoman said.
She claimed she then kicked him and ran to I.S. 5, the William Crowley Intermediate School, at 50-40 Jacobus St., sources and officials said.
But by Tuesday afternoon the teen had begun changing significant details of her story, according to NYPD officials.
She stopped claiming that she had been groped instead saying a man who may have been intoxicated put his arm around her waist while saying, "Hey baby," police said.
She changed her story that she'd been followed from 82nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue, near a train station, police said.
The girl still says she pushed and kicked the man before running, police said.
When the girl got to school where she told staffers who then notified police, her parents and a guidance counselor, a Department of Education spokeswoman said.
Police did not immediately have information about if she changed her description of the suspect.
Police said their investigation is ongoing.
More than 1,600 students in grades six through eight attend the school, according to a Department of Education website.
