Sketch artist reveals how ‘nervous’ teen rape victim overcame terror to help catch migrant suspect

The 13-year-old victim in a Queens park rape was the picture of courage in the hours after the heinous knifepoint attack — overcoming her terror to remember key details that helped nab the monster.

“She was so nervous, she was actually shaking,” recalled Detective Jason Harvey, one of two sketch artists on the NYPD. “But she was able to calm down and talk to me.”

Over the next few hours, the brave teenager gave the two-decade veteran salient details about her attacker’s facial features, hair and the distinctive boar tattoo on the left side of his chest. It was that red-inked tat that helped cops definitively identify the alleged rapist.

“She remembered what he was wearing, exactly what his tattoo looked like,” he said.

She was able to give an accurate description of his face, saying it was oval, described his black clothes and spiked hair, even recalled his braces.

“She was saying ‘That doesn’t look right, change this, and give me direction,” said Harvey.

But the most descriptive element she nailed was the tattoo.

“She remembered that it had red eyes,” Harvey said. “She remembered everything about that tattoo.”

One thing that helped the teen was having the 13-year-old friend who was with her during the attack in the interview with her, Harvey said.

“Having her friend there really calmed her down,” the detective said. “He was able to help her.”

The two teens were in a field at Kissena Park around 3:30 p.m. on June 13 playing soccer after school when alleged rapist Christian Inga-Landi, an illegal Ecuadorian migrant, forced them farther into the park at the point of a “machete-style knife,” cops said.

He then tied their hands with shoelaces and raped the girl, cops said. The boy was face down for the entire attack so didn’t see what was happening to his friend, police sources said.

Rape victims don’t always have useful recall after an attack.

“They have more time to look at their attackers,” Harvey said. “But a lot of times people blank this out.”

When Harvey’s sketches were done, they were printed onto wanted posters and posted throughout the city and broadcast on social media and TV.

Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the sketch — which included a drawing of the tattoo — was the lynchpin in the case.

“The sketch artist gave us that image to work off of and I’ll tell you right now, that sketch was dead on,” he said after the arrest.

The migrant was arrested when Good Samaritans recognized him at the 108th Street Grocery in Queens around 1 a.m. Tuesday.  His shirt came off during his tussle, revealing the tell-tale tattoo.

Angela Sauretti, 23, said the crowd fought him even harder when they saw and recognized the tattoo, which was only been depicted in Harvey’s sketch.

Harvey, who went to the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, FL, before joining the force, was glad his sketch helped.

“It feels good, it does,” the Rockland County dad of two said. “I just did the drawing.”

Detectives Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo was less humble about his detective’s handiwork.

“The skills of NYPD Detectives are limitless — like the unsung hero sketch artist Jason Harvey,” DiGiacomo said. “His drawing helped lead investigators to the apprehension of the monster wanted for the heinous crime.”