Unease after rapes in Harding Park

The police nabbed alleged serial rapist Ray Ray Conner on Friday, October 23 but Harding Park and Clason Point neighbors are still on edge. The DNA-based arrest followed three alleged rapes in the Harding Park playground. The Parks Department has increased patrols at the unlit playground but nearby Pugsley Creek Park remains open at night.

“Pugsely Creek Park is about to explode,” Gus Dinolis, president of the Waterfront Garden Homeowners Association, said.

The first Harding Park rape occurred on Thursday, August 27 at 2 a.m., when Conner of Blackrock Avenue in Castle Hill, 25, allegedly approached a 19-year old woman and her boyfriend in Harding Park. He pulled out a gun and told the boyfriend to take a walk, Harding Park Homeowners Association president Elbin Mena said. Conner has been charged with rape and criminal possession of a weapon.

Detectives stopped by the Harding Park Homeowners Association to look at videotape from an outdoor camera but had no luck, office manager Jose Gonzales said. There were no rapes in September but on Monday, October 12 at 1:45 a.m., Conner allegedly struck again. He kidnapped a 20-year old woman in Castle Hill, tossed her into the trunk of car and headed to the playground, Gonzales said. Fear gripped the neighborhood.

“We were like ‘Uh oh!’” Gonzales said.

Mena phoned the Parks Department to complain that the Harding Park playground had been left open at night and was told that a Parks Department employee would lock up. Neighbors were livid when, on Wednesday, October 21 at 11:30 p.m., Conner allegedly raped a 19-year woman in the playground. A Parks Department employee had bolted the Gildersleeve Avenue front gate but had left the Bolton Avenue side gate open.

Gonzales and Mena posted fliers in Harding Park and Clason Point to warn the neighborhood; 43rd Precinct Deputy Inspector Charles Ortiz later informed Mena that police posted 500 fliers; Mena disagreed.

More than 100 neighbors grilled police and Parks Department employees at a meeting on Monday, October 26. The Parks Department has agreed to lock the playground gates at dusk rather than at night, a spokeswoman said.

Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, who neighbors phoned after the first rape, praised the 43rd Precinct. Detectives found Conner thanks in part to a pair of courageous young men. Gonzales’ godson and a friend were in a backyard beside the playground on October 21, and heard moans and then screams. The young men called out and rushed to help the woman. The pair glimpsed a green car and alerted police.

“Crime is rare here,” Mena said. “But the neighborhood pulled together.”

Dinolis and Gonzales are concerned that a Conner copycat will choose unlit Pugsley Creek Park. Dinolis has seen vagrants in the park at 6 a.m., he said. The 78-acre park is under renovation; the Parks Department generally keeps large parks open so as not to lock anyone in. Dinolis wants more police near Pugsley Creek Park but Clason Point is a low-crime and thus low-priority neighborhood.

Crespo will attempt to fund lights at the Harding Park Playground if neighbors want lights, he said. Lights would frustrate criminals but would also lead to night basketball and noise, the assemblyman explained.