A combination of efforts by the NYPD, the media and ultimately the public, resulted in the capture and arrest of a sexual predator wanted in connection with two incidents involving 7-year-old girls last week in Ozone Park.
Lee Samuels, 25 is reportedly a homeless mechanic. He admitted to police in a confession that it was him in pictures extracted from surveillance video.
Lee Samuels, a Trinidadian national, was picked up after a friend he was staying with called police and reported him. After three days, the man saw news reports and images and told police where they could find the 25-year-old mechanic. Police then descended on a shelter where the men were staying on West 163rd Street in Manhattan, and made the arrest.
According to reports, he has two active warrants, goes by two other names and has an arrest history that includes 17 prior arrests—two of the offenses are sexual in nature, one for exposing himself to a child at a Barnes and Noble bookstore almost 7 years ago and an arrest for sex abuse in a Manhattan park back I 2009. Other arrests were for assault and possession of stolen property and menacing.
Samuels was arraigned in Queens County Court on Wednesday morning. Charged with a first-degree criminal sexual act, endangering the welfare of a child and forcible touching.
The intense search for Samuels began last week when the assaults began. On Wednesday, around 3 p.m., he followed two sisters, ages 7 and 12, when they were walking home from school. They were on their front stoop when he grabbed the 7 year old’s buttocks, but went no further because her sister started screaming.
A few hours later, at around 6 p.m., Samuels allegedly struck again, this time in a driveway on 115th Street off of Sutter Avenue. Another 7-year-old had been playing with a ball at her house and when it went over a fence, she followed it. There, within feet from her own home, she met with Samuels who asked her if she wanted to play a game. He told her to close her eyes and stick her tongue out; she complied, he exposed himself and he forced her into performing a sexual act.
Police continued to release more enhanced versions of the suspect’s photo extracted from video surveillance obtained from neighbor’s cameras. Photo Courtesy of the NYPD.
Investigators have determined however, that it was not Samuels that exposed himself to a 14-year-old girl on Thursday afternoon, after trailing her for several blocks in a gold colored van. That suspect is still at large and wanted now for three incients which all occured in a small area of the community between 12rd and 126th Streets and 111th Avenue and 116th Avenue. Police are asking anyone with information to call.
Apparently feeling the heat of the intense hunt to find him, Samuels reached out for a friend who lives on the upper West side of Manhattan and asked for a place to stay. The friend agreed to let him stay there but when he realized that the grifter was hiding from the cops, he quickly turned him in.
After being taken into custody, Samuels allegedly told police he was homeless when they asked him for his address. “I live nowhere,” he said, “I crash with friends.” And authorities say that he identified himself as the man in the surveillence video supplied by residents.
In the week since the incidents took place, an unparalled effort by the NYPD was underway. “The resources applied to this situation by the department were unbelievable,” said 106 Community Affairs Officer Kenneth Zorn. “We had many extra officers on patrol sent from all over the borough.” Personnel from the detectives squads, sex crimes, crime prevention and community policing, joined together, pooling resources, to bring about the arrest.
South Ozone Park and surrounding communities were blanketed with posters and officers who canvassed the area in order to compile all available information. “The cooperation of the public in this situation was phenomenal,” said Zorn.
And echoing that sentiment was Kevin Ryan, spokesman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, who told The Forum in an interview on Tuesday night that, “this arrest is a great example of what happens when there is cooperation between the police the media and ultimately the public. The NYPD did a masterful job of assembling the information, the media got it out there and citizens paid attention and reported this man.”
Sources at the NYPD said that Samuels has an extensive arrest record and while none of the prior charges are of a sexual nature, it will not hinder the case against Samuels, who will face up to 25 years if convicted.
And on Tuesday night when news of the arrest spread throughout the community, there was relief —and skepticism among parents and neighbors. “I am glad they got him,” said Aurora Martinez who lives around the block from where the NYPD mobile command center was set up on 115th St. since last Wednesday, “but from now on we can’t let our guard down. He’s just one of many sick people who prey on children. This was just a terrible eye opener.”
Other neighbors were in agreement as were parents at nearby schools. David Narine, whose niece attends nearby PS 100 said his family never lets any of the children out of their sight. “It’s a terrible thing when a child can’t go to get their ball back without being in danger. We are all responsible to make sure this doesn’t happen to our kids and that people like him pay a huge price for what he did.”
Elected officials and civic leaders also shared in the community’s reaction. Councilman Eric Ulrich, who was out on the street with Speaker Christine Quinn on Monday morning handing out flyers said the arrest will have his constituents resting a little easier. “My office received many calls of concern throughout this situation, and rightfully so. The police and the public are to be commended in bringing this arrest about. Now it’s up to the law to make sure justice is served.”
Deputy Inspector Thomas Pascale, CO at the 106 Pct. said the effort to bring this criminal in were carried out by the department with the same intensity as a homicide investigation. And the CO said that the public had thier hearts in this case–desperately searching for the suspect
Now the family of the unidentified 7-year-old who was physically attacked hopes their child can recover. A family friend who wished to remain anonymous said the child is doing “Ok” but that it would be a long time—if ever—that she could get back to normal. “This family has been devastated by this event,” the man said. “We hope—we pray— that they can put the pieces of an innocent little life back together. And with the same conviction, we hope this animal is behind bars forever and unable to destroy another child’s life.”
By Patricia Adams
