MANHATTAN — A 33-year-old woman was raped and robbed early Monday by three teen boys she met at a cafe who were videotaped entering her lower Manhattan apartment building after the predawn assault, police and sources said.
The 16-year-old boys — Eric Pek, Emanuel Burrows and Sanat Asliev — were arrested on rape and theft charges, NYPD officials said. They are also suspected of stealing the woman's cellphone and credit and debit cards, police said.
The woman met the teens at an Eldridge Street cafe and they convinced her to come with them to a nearby park area, where they assaulted her, sources said. Afterwards, they went through her purse, where they found her I.D. and house keys, according to sources.
The boys then went to the victim's apartment, where the video was taken, but ran away after they realized someone was in the apartment, sources said.
Police did not give an exact location but said the assault took place in the 5th Precinct, which encompasses Chinatown, Civic Center, Little Italy and SoHo.
The boys can be seen in surveillance footage released by police calmly entering the apartment building 5:11 a.m., according to the NYPD.
One of them, wearing a gray Adidas hoodie, pulls up his hood and repeatedly glances at the camera.
As he does so, another man switches his Brooklyn Nets baseball cap from back to front and throws up his red hood.
The three walk up a flight of stairs, but then race back down a minute later at 5:12 a.m., according to the video's time stamp.
The woman was treated at an area hospital, where she was listed in stable condition, police said. She did not know any of the boys, police said.
Pek, of Kensington, was arrested on charges of rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny and petit larceny, police said.
A childhood friend, who did not wish to be named, acknowledged Pek was previously arrested — six times before, most recently for petit larceny on March 14, according to an NYPD spokesman — “but not [for] rape.” The friend believed Pek was pressured to tag along by his companions.
“That’s not him,” said the friend, who grew up playing handball with Pek at Seward Park. “He’s a good kid, cheerful. “He was just chilling with the wrong people, that’s it.”
Pek, he added, was not a regular at the internet café where sources say the teenage boys and the victim met before the assault.
Burrows, of Canarsie, was arrested on charges of rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny and attempted petit larceny, police said.
Burrows has been arrested 11 times before, most recently for a March 29 burglary, the spokesman added.
Asliev, of Midwood, was arrested on charges of attempted rape, assault and attempted burglary, police said.
