The fifth and final suspect in the alleged gang rape of a young woman in a Brooklyn playground was arrested yesterday. The last arrest came as one suspect claimed his smartphone video from that night shows the victim gave consent.

The NYPD says that the 18-year-old and her father, who were in the Osborn Playground in Brownsville on Thursday night, were approached by a group of five males around 9:10 p.m. The father says one of them was armed and ordered him to leave. When the father complied, police say that each of the males raped the woman and then fled before the father returned with police officers.

The father, 39, apparently took 20 minutes to get help; while he says he asked bodega clerks to use their phones because his daughter was being raped, clerks say that he appeared drunk, never mentioned the attack and never explained he needed to call the police.

Two of the suspects claim that the father and daughter were having sex in the playground when their group arrived. A police source told the Wall Street Journal that the allegations were made in separate interviews, "They indicated that the father is the one who put her in this compromised position and they took advantage. One of them says, ‘We’ll take it from here.’"


Relatives of suspect Ethan Phillip, 15, showed reporters video from his smartphone. From the NY Times:

The smartphone video that emerged on Tuesday was brief and cryptic and showed only the woman, who could only be heard mumbling at times. Whether it might help the defense or the prosecution was unclear.

Billy Sullivan, 24, said the video, less than 30 seconds long, was recorded Thursday at Osborn Playground by his younger brother, Mr. Phillip, 15. He said it portrays a fresh snippet of dialogue that would help the argument that any sex was consensual.

“She said yeah,” an unidentified male voice is heard saying on the video, played for a reporter on Tuesday by Mr. Sullivan as he and his mother stood in the doorway of her home. Then a male voice is heard saying: “If you said yeah, it’s lit, like, you know what I mean. I could tell you a freak.”

And here's the Post's account:

One of the boys took out his cellphone and recorded video — catching the woman with her pants down as her father stood nearby, the suspects’ relatives said.

In a short clip of the footage viewed by The Post, a young woman can be seen sitting on the ground rocking back and forth and grinning. There is the sound of young men laughing in the background. One of the teens says to the older man, “Can we have some of that?” according to a law-enforcement source.

A teen can then be heard telling the girl, “You said, ‘Yeah.’ That’s what I’m saying, it’s lit [OK], like you know what I mean? I could tell you a freak.’’

The police are in the process of obtaining search warrants to view the footage. They are also seeking the gun that was allegedly shown in the incident.

The suspects—Denzel Murray, 14; Shaquell Cooper, 15; Ethan Phillip, 15; Onandi Brown, 17; and Travis Beckford, 17, who was apprehended at his high school yesterday—were all charged with rape, criminal sex act and sexual abuse.

Their lawyers say they are innocent. Kenneth Montgomery, who is representing Murray, said, "What are we really doing here? Have we not learned our lessons from the Central Park Five?" And Brown's lawyer Spencer Leeds said his client was arrested due to political pressure, "Apparently it was the mayor who kind of forced the police’s hands, putting it out there that the community was at risk when they’re not at risk."

Bratton has said on Monday, "At this juncture, we have no doubt she was raped."

Investigators are sifting through details of the attack. The Daily News reports, "A source said the alleged victim — who was clearly injured and traumatized after the attack, according to police — was in foster care and living out of state until last summer. The man who was with the woman is her biological dad, who lost custody when she was just 3 years old, a source said. The accuser’s mother is not in her life, the source said." The source added, "It’s complicated."

Leeds insisted, "This case is on its way to disappearing. There's a belief in the neighborhood in the Brownsville community that the complaining witness and the father have had sexual intercourse."

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said that the police erred in waiting to tell the public about the incident; while some community leaders were notified on Friday, the police didn't tell the media until Saturday night. Bratton said, "There’s no denying that the department should have—I the police commissioner, our press office—put some information out on Friday."

De Blasio, who was told about the incident on Sunday, said that while he is in constant communication with top NYPD officials, “I should have been informed certainly on Friday, and we’ve all had that conversation. This was a very horrific crime and a very unusual crime, and I should have been informed more quickly."