Rape Continues to Shake Rittenhouse Neighborhood
Saturday’s rape of a woman in her apartment near 19th and Spruce streets is still reverberating through the neighborhood, the Philadelphia Daily News reports.
On Saturday around 1:20 a.m., a 26-year-old woman was walking home from Ladder 15 on Sansom Street to her home on the 1900 block of Spruce Street. As she approached her building, a man grabbed her from behind and forced her into her apartment, where he raped and robbed her. A surveillance camera on the block caught the moment when he accosted her on the street.
Ashley Lu, 25, who lives on the block, said she was standing in line at a nearby 7-Eleven when she overheard someone talking about the crime.
“It’s surprising,” Lu said. “You expect to be OK – even if it’s late – in an area like this.”
“These [criminals] aren’t a part of the neighborhood,” said Carlisle Frank, who used to live on Spruce Street near 22nd and now lives in Chestnut Hill. “I guess they prey on people because people think it’s safe. It’s not.”
Police describe the suspect as a Hispanic male, 25 to 30 years old, between 5’5″ and 5’10” tall, weighing about 160 pounds. He was wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans, and a dark colored baseball cap and carrying a black messenger bag.
