By Brian Zanzonico
Hill Avenue in Elmont is near a busy shopping center, and counts the always crowded Elmont American Legion Hall as a neighbor. So how was a 15-year-old girl forced at gunpoint into a van at 5:30 on the afternoon of Nov. 9 in front of a house just feet from Hempstead Turnpike last week and subsequently raped?
"It's dark over there - they need some lights," said Valerio, a Hill Avenue resident. "Now it gets dark earlier. It's sad that nobody saw anything. It's scary. I never thought anything like that could happen around here."
Police said the teen was walking on Hill Avenue when a dark van with curtains pulled in front of her and stopped. A man described as either black or Hispanic, about 6 feet tall and wearing dark clothing - possibly a uniform - got out of the van, put a gun to the girl's head, opened the back doors of the vehicle and pushed her inside, police said. He covered her head with a coat and drove around for about half an hour before taking her to a basement and raping her. The teen was then dropped off on Baylis Avenue and First Street near the Cross Island Expressway service road across town. A passerby found her and called 911.
"[The suspect] kept her pants and gave her a pair of sweatpants to put on, quite possibly to keep any evidence that might have been there," said Detective Sgt. Richard Zito of the Nassau County Police Special Victims Section at a press conference on Nov. 10. Detective Robert Dunn of the Special Victims Squad told the Herald the sweatpants would be tested for DNA as well.
A Hill Avenue resident taking her three daughters to soccer practice said the girls kick the ball around in front of their house every day after their homework is done. All future sessions will be moved to the backyard, she said. "I'm usually able to watch them from the window," said the resident, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "But sometimes I do take my eyes off them, which I usually don't think twice about because it's three of them out there and this is a safe neighborhood. From now on they'll be playing in the back, so I can watch them while I cook."
Another neighbor who declined to be identified said she left her house to go grocery shopping at about 5 p.m. on the afternoon of the assault. "When I heard about it, all I could think was it could have easily been me," she said. "And it's horrifying to think he's out there, and he came on our street to do this."
At the nearby shopping center, which has a Duane Reade and Payless Shoes among its stores, shoppers said the rape was an isolated incident that won't deter them from coming back. "I live right up the road and have been coming here for years," said Melissa Radak. "I've always felt safe here, and I'll continue to come here."
Betty Mansoor lives across Hempstead Turnpike, and walks to Duane Reade when her pregnant daughter, Ana, needs something. "But now I think I'll take the car," she said.
Hill Avenue is a half-mile-long strip that runs perpendicular to Hempstead Turnpike. Neighbors said that people from surrounding streets use Hill Avenue as a conduit to get to shops on Hempstead Turnpike.
"There's Payless and Party City in that shopping center," Valerio said. "There's always young girls around."
Police are asking anyone with information to call CrimeStoppers at (800) 244-TIPS.
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