Migrant accused of raping 13-year-old girl in Queens park caught with help from residents

A migrant from Ecuador with a massive tattoo of a wild boar on his chest has been nabbed for the horrific knifepoint rape of a 13-year-old girl in a Queens park — thanks to keen-eyed neighbors who recognized him from a surveillance photo released by the NYPD.

A group of good Samaritans grabbed Christian Inga, 25, when he was spotted outside a deli near Waldorn and 108th Sts. in Corona — about 3 miles from Kissena Corridor Park in Flushing, where he allegedly held a girl at knifepoint and violated her.

Inga, who entered the U.S. through Eagle Pass, Tex., with a 3-year-old child in June 2021, was staying at a single-room occupancy dwelling near the deli, police said.

“He just started showing up [to the deli] two weeks ago,” said a regular at the shop who identified himself only as Forge. “Yesterday we seen him in the morning. Then someone saw the post on Instagram about him and the reward and we were like, ‘Oh s–t, he was just here!’”

The man, along with several other people, waited at the deli all day until Inga came back.

Around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, the suspect returned and the neighbors “reacted,” according to Angela Sauretti, who residents say first recognized Inga’s photo.

“I said to him, ‘You raped a little girl’ [and] he said, ‘I don’t care,'” Sauretti recalled. “So that’s why we put our hands and feet on him. I don’t regret it at all.”

Inga tried to fight off the neighbors, who bound his legs with a belt so he couldn’t run away.

“He was hiding under a car screaming for his life,” said Forge.

The man began pleading with the group, who had already dialed 911 and were waiting for cops to arrive.

“Last night he was trying to cop a plea and explain himself,” said Daniel Ramos, 34. “He had his excuse ready to go. There is no excuse for that. I have daughters. There is no excuse.”

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Inga suffered “minor injuries” at the hands of the group.

“There were about 10 neighborhood people trying to do the right thing,” Kenny said.

Inga had previously opened up to neighbors at the deli about a drug addiction and his desire to return to Ecuador to be with family and get clean.

“To do that to someone is just sick,” said Ramos. “He was aware of what he was doing.”

The Corona residents weren’t the first to recognize Inga, Kenny said. Within a few hours of releasing surveillance photos of Inga on a bicycle Monday the Crime Stoppers tip line was inundated with calls from people who recognized him.

“Our city was united in getting justice for the victim and her family,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said Tuesday. “There is no greater force multiplier than the eyes and ears we engage from the involved public. This is exactly what we mean when we talk about public safety is a shared responsibility.”

Cops on Friday distributed a sketch of the suspect and a distinctive tattoo of a wild boar on his chest.

“That sketch was dead on,” Kenny said. “We got numerous tips from Queens residents who gave us the perpetrator’s name and Facebook pictures of him wearing the same clothes and that tattoo on his chest.”

The surveillance image was given to police by a resident near the park who recognized him from the sketch, Kenny said.

After he was taken into custody, a bruised and battered Inga was brought to an area hospital for observation. Cops have charged him with rape, sex abuse and two counts of robbery, menacing, kidnapping, and endangering the welfare of a child.

Inga was seen yawning as he was led out of the NYPD’s 112th Precinct stationhouse Tuesday wearing a hospital bracelet, black T-shirt and blue basketball shorts.

A detective at the precinct told the Daily News the victim’s description was pivotal in the investigation.

“The description the girl gave was really accurate,” said the cop. “For someone so young in that kind of a situation, it’s remarkable.”

Inga’s arraignment in Queens Criminal Court was pending Tuesday.

The victim had just finished playing soccer inside the park with a schoolmate, also 13, when Inga approached them around 3:30 p.m., cops said.

He demanded they follow him into a dense wooded area off the beaten path near Colden St. and Kalmia Ave. When the children refused, Inga flashed a “large machete-style knife” and forced them into the woods, Kenny said at a news conference Friday.

Once in a secluded thatch of trees, the attacker tied the kids’ wrists together with a shoelace and raped the girl.

He then robbed the two children of their cell phones and ran off.

“This incident is a parent’s nightmare,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said Friday. “All the community should be very upset about this and be willing to come out and help the police department as we try to resolve this issue.”

Once in custody, Inga made incriminating statements and identified himself as the one in the surveillance footage, sources said.

“He indicated that he has a drug problem,” Kenny said. “He said he found the knife and that this was the first time he did something like this.”

This is Inga’s first arrest in New York City, although he has received three summonses for having an open container in the street in December 2022, jumping a turnstile in March 2023 and for trespassing last May 2023.

Cops were also called to stop a fight between Inga and his girlfriend at her Queens home on Jan. 21, a police source said. No one was arrested but a domestic incident report was filed, the source said.

Visitors to Kissena Corridor Park, a narrow greenspace that connects Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to Kissena Park, over the weekend said they avoid the heavily wooded areas, especially in the evenings.

“I don’t usually walk at night here,” one park visitor, who would only identify herself as Grace, told the Daily News as she looked at a wanted poster along the trail. “That would be crazy.”

Shocked by news of the attack, Grace, 77, said: “It’s hurting my heart.”

“How old is the girl? 13?” she added. “We cannot trust [anyone]. We have to be careful.”

According to recent NYPD statistics, there have been two robberies and one assault in Kissena Corridor Park as of March 31. Last year, Kissena Corridor Park was the scene of four robberies, two assaults and one grand larceny, cops said.

For the foreseeable future, the NYPD plans to bring in more patrols, fly drones and install cameras in the park, officials said.