The suspect in the abduction and rape of a 9-year-old girl in Queens died Friday after a car crash while fleeing police.
New York Police identified the suspect as 64-year-old Wayne Noel, WABC reported. Surveillance video showed his silver Honda Civic flying through an intersection and colliding with an SUV. Noel was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital and pronounced dead.
The crash came less than 24 hours after the abduction and sexual assault. Police said the girl entered the Key Food store at about 7 p.m. Thursday with her grandmother, who left her alone briefly while she went into a restroom. Noel reportedly approached the girl, told her to “get in front of me,” grabbed her hair and forced her outside.
Noel put her in her his car, drove a short distance away and attacks the girl. NYPD Assistant Chief Jason Savino said a good Samaritan interrupted the assault.
“As a response, the subject cowardly drives away and parks once again in close proximity, right back again in that Key Food store area, and once again sexually assaults our survivor,” said Savino.
Then he dumped her on the sidewalk and left the scene, WCBS said. The girl’s grandmother, meanwhile, reports her missing, launching a search that located her nearby. She was taken to a hospital for an evaluation.
🚨WANTED for KIDNAPPING: On Thursday, August 29, 2024, at approximately 7:21 PM, a 9-year-old female victim was in the vicinity of 213 Street and Jamaica Avenue when an unknown male individual approached the victim and led her out of the location into his vehicle and drove away… pic.twitter.com/EhJzxBU3tZ
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) August 30, 2024
Police said they located Noel’s Honda on Friday and tried to pull him over, but he sped away before crashing into the SUV. One person in that vehicle suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Police also said that Noel had four prior arrests.
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[Featured image: Wayne Noel/New York Police Department]
