Man forces woman, 21, into Upper West Side stairwell before raping her – as cops hunt for attacker

A suspect still on the loose allegedly raped a 21-year-old woman in the stairwell of her New York City apartment building, threatening to kill her if she didn’t comply.

Police are now on the hunt for the unknown perpetrator, who was captured on security camera shortly after the attack — which took place just after 1 a.m. Saturday in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

According to investigators, the man followed the young woman into her building, located near West 65th Street and West End Avenue, and into the elevator.

At the time, the suspect – a black man described as a 5’8″ approximately 150 pounds and believed to be in his 30s – forced the woman out of the elevator and into the stairwell, where he committed the rape.

The stranger allegedly threatened her life throughout the altercation, and the stranger reportedly forced his victim back out of the building and onto the rain-soaked street, before fleeing the scene in an unknown direction.

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Police are now on the hunt for the unknown perpetrator, who was captured on security cameras shortly after the attack – which took place just after 1am on Saturday

“It was reported to police that at approximately 1:20 a.m. on Saturday, March 4, 2023, an unidentified man followed a 21-year-old woman to a building near West End Avenue and West 65th Street,” the NYPD said Sunday morning.

Once inside, the person followed the victim into an elevator and then forced her out of the elevator and into a stairwell where he raped her.

“The person then forced the victim out of the building and fled the scene,” police added, revealing that the victim had been taken to a hospital in the area. The extent of the woman’s injuries, as well as her identity, remain unreported as of 11:30 a.m.

Surveillance videos taken outside the woman’s residence – as well as in the stairwell itself – showed the suspected assailant immediately after the attack.

A fragment is now being distributed to citizens in the five boroughs and shows the suspect dropping his coat in spite of it seen pouring rain that night, throwing it over a fence before it ran off.

It’s not immediately clear exactly where the short clip was taken, though police confirmed it was near the woman’s residence in the affluent area.

Another, still released by police, bit into the stairwell where the woman underwent her ordeal showed the face of the alleged attacker, wrapped in his hood as he presumably escaped.

Both shots show the slender, dark-skinned man wearing a black jacket — with him ditched — as well as a gray sweatshirt and black pants. Police said on Sunday that the woman did not see in which direction the man fled.

Authorities are now asking New Yorkers to keep their eyes peeled for the attacker and to contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers task force with any information pertinent to the case.

The incident is the latest in a string of rapes plaguing the Big Apple, with the largely residential Upper West Side in particular emerging as a hotbed for such assaults.

In January, 74-year-old Maria Hernandez, who lived in a one-bedroom apartment on West 83rd Street, was raped and murdered by a man who broke into her home.

Police said they ransacked the senior’s home after receiving a call from her sister who came across Hernandez’s body, which was bruises on her face, arms and back.

Soon after, police determined that she had been strangled and that there were signs of serious sexual abuse. Less than a week later, police handcuffed Lashawn Mackey, 47, and Terrence Moore, 53, for the crime.

Mackey, a maintenance man at the building, and Moore, a Brooklyn man with previous second-degree murder and robbery convictions, have both pleaded not guilty to charges including murder, aggravated sexual assault and burglary.