A 35-year-old homeless man wanted by New York City police for trying to rape a woman as she pushed a stroller with her infant son was captured by detectives in Englewood, authorities said Monday.
Detectives Michael Hargrave and Adolfo Gutierrez arrested the alleged attacker, Oscar Ruiz, after spotting him at the Palisades Court shopping center Sunday afternoon, according to Englewood Detective Capt. Timothy Torell.
Ruiz was being sought for attacking a 33-year-old woman Sept. 27 in Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park, an NYPD spokeswoman told Patch. Ruiz allegedly jumped up behind the woman, wielding a broken bottle, and grabbed her on a path in the park.
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The woman fought back, smacking Ruiz in the head with a bike pump before he let her go and took off, New York police said. A stroller holding her 8-month-old son was knocked over, but the child was unhurt.
Charges were pending Monday afternoon, but the NYPD’s special victims unit was treating the attack as an attempted rape.
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Local police were on alert for Ruiz after a tip led the NYPD to Englewood, according to police.
“We work with New York City Detectives on almost a daily basis,” Torell said. “We have a sophisticated intelligence sharing network with them.”
Ruiz was being held at the Bergen County Jail, awaiting extradition to New York.
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