Queens Residents Capture Suspect in Rape of 13-Year-Old Girl

Nearly a dozen Queens residents stopped a man on the street after he was recognized as the person wanted in connection with the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl last week, according to the police. The residents then held the man until officers arrived, the authorities said.

The man, Christian Inga, was at 108th and Waldron Streets in Corona at about 1 a.m. on Tuesday fighting with his captors when officers arrived, Joseph Kenny, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, said at a news conference later that day.

Mr. Inga, 25, was treated at a hospital for minor injuries he sustained while resisting the crowd before being released into police custody. He was charged with first-degree rape, robbery, kidnapping and sex abuse, along with several other crimes.

“We are confident that this person who committed this terrible crime is now in custody,” Police Commissioner Edward Caban told reporters on Tuesday.

Mr. Inga, who the police said is Ecuadorean and entered the United States through the southern border three years ago, is accused of using a “machete-style knife” to force the girl and a schoolmate, a 13-year-old boy, into the woods of Kissena Park in Queens on Thursday. Once there, he tied the children’s wrists together using a shoelace, then sexually assaulted the girl and stole their phones before fleeing, the police said.

After his arrest, Mr. Inga told officers that he had a drug problem and that he had found the knife he used in the attack, Chief Kenny said. Mr. Inga identified himself in footage he was shown, according to Chief Kenny.