BY THE VILLAGE SUN | The hoodie gave him away.
Two days after a young woman was raped in Soho, police arrested a suspect.
On the afternoon of Tues., April 23, cops collared Ellow Williams, 30, of 10 Catherine Slip, in the Alfred E. Smith Houses in the Lower East Side’s Two Bridges neighborhood.
He was charged with rape, robbery, strangulation, stalking, burglary, sex abuse, coercion and criminal possession of firearm.
According to police, around 4 a.m. on Sun., April 21, the suspect followed a 23-year-old woman into a residential building at Thompson and Prince Streets, put her in a chokehold and raped her near the stairwell.
A police spokesperson said cops were able to track down the wanted man based on the black hooded sweatshirt with a distinctive design on its back of a red heart and lettering that he wore at the time of the crime. It wasn’t immediately clear if a tip to the Crime Stoppers hotline was involved.
As for the robbery charge, she said the rapist did steal the victim’s phone and wallet but, at some point, dropped them on the floor of the building’s hallway, possibly while committing the crime and then forgetting them before fleeing the scene.
A second police spokesperson said the charges refer to an “alleged firearm.”
The Post had more details on the suspect and the arrest. The newspaper said that, according to sources, Williams has “a lengthy rap sheet [and] has been arrested at least 30 times dating back to 2010 on various charges, including assault, grand larceny, burglary [and] criminal possession of a weapon.”
“He is notable in that he is out on parole for robbery,” Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. “He has an extensive contact with the police. Five collars show up on his record — five in New York City, one in Newark.”
Kenny said Williams was arrested in a Manhattan robbery case in December 2019 and later received a 42-month prison sentence and then another 42 months of supervised release.
According to Kenny, Williams accosted the Soho victim on the walk-up building’s second floor, threatened to shoot her, put her in a chokehold and then raped her, before fleeing with $40 he stole from her.
Aw, you know this was the South Village, not SoHo.
A woman was raped by some fiend and all you’re worried about is nomenclature?!!! What’s wrong with you?
It is actually Soho.
No mercy for this animal! Long hard prison sentence!