Police say they have arrested a man they believe viciously attacked a woman in the bathroom of a Midtown bar early Thursday morning. Mbarek Lafrem, 30, of Norwood, Pa. was charged with first- and second-degree assault and attempted rape. UPDATE: Now prosecutors have added a charge of attempted murder, because of the victim's severe injuries.
The Post reports that Lafrem "was described as a construction worker in town on a job and staying at a Best Western near the Eighth Avenue bar where the brutal assault took place." Apparently he made "incriminating" statements; according to the Daily News, "A police source said the man admitted he was drunk, and beat her because he was angry she didn't want to dance with him."
The suspect allegedly followed the victim, a 29-year-old pediatric nurse, into the bathroom at Social, a bar on West 48th Street. She was so badly beaten that she suffered a fractured skull, a broken nose and a broken eye socket, needed 50 stitches, and was left unconscious. A friend found her with her pants pulled down; while a rape kit came back negative, it's believed the suspect tried to rape the victim.
Police released surveillance video—including some taken on an NYPD camera— of the suspect after the attack and were led to Lefrem by a telephone tip. While Lafrem reportedly confessed to the beating, he denied the report. A neighbor in Pennsylvania told the Post, "I won't say I was shocked. I know he liked to drink. He went out a lot and messed around."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said of the NYPD cameras (600 of them, in Operation Argus), "Locations are chosen based on the latest crime data or on assessments of their sensitivity as terrorist targets. Images recorded through the Argus program have so far proven crucial to solving a number of crimes, including homicides and shootings."
