NEW YORK — Residents of a New York City neighborhood are being credited with the arrest of an Ecuadorian man in the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl, a crime that the city’s police commissioner said “shocked our entire city.”
Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi, 25, was awaiting a court appearance after his arrest early Tuesday outside a deli in Corona, Queens.
He was charged in the rape of the teenager last Thursday at Kissena Park in Queens after he allegedly used a knife to accost the girl and a 13-year-old boy who was walking with her.
Police officials told a news conference that community members detained Inga-Landi until police arrived even though he fought them.
Commissioner Edward A. Caban of the New York Police Department said the rape “shocked our entire city.”
“Our city was united in getting justice for the victim and her family,” he added.
Joe Kenny, chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, said Inga-Landi confessed, saying he had a drug problem, that he found the knife he used in the attack and that “this was the first time that he had ever done anything like this.”
Kenny said the suspect also identified himself in a video that investigators showed him as criminal charges were prepared, including rape, sex abuse, robbery, menacing, unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of a weapon.
No attorney was listed as Inga-Landi’s representative in court filings. The Ecuadorian consulate did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Kenny said members of the community, including a landlord who recalled that Inga-Landi had tried to rent a room from him two weeks ago, provided “crucial information” as the police department saturated the area with detectives and distributed pictures and a video of the suspect on social media.
The response from the community even before the arrest was so strong that police knew Inga-Landi’s identity, had accessed his Facebook page and had a “dead-on” sketch along with photographs and video, Kenny said.
He said local residents who lived on the block where the arrest occurred ensured that once he was spotted, he couldn’t go anywhere, apparently even using a belt to hold his feet together.
Kenny said at least 10 individuals kept him in place until police arrived.
Angela Sauretti, 23, told The Daily Beast that she spotted Inga-Landi, wearing a black hoodie, in the deli and put him in a headlock when he tried to flee.
“He said, ‘Let me explain!’ I’m like, ‘There’s nothing to explain. You’re a rapist,’” she recalled.
Sauretti said Inga-Landi crawled under a car “like a cat,” but community members surrounded it to prevent his escape.