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A 42-year-old drifter with a long prison record, David Albert Mitchell, was arrested Sept. 13 for the daylight rape and beating of a 73-year-old woman in Central Park the day before, the police said. Read the full article about Mr. Mitchell and his arrest here. Below is the original Sept. 12 article about the attack.

A 73-year-old woman was raped and beaten in Central Park just before noon on Wednesday, the police said, and the attacker’s assault was preceded by a chilling question: “Do you remember me?”

The woman, a bird-watcher who goes to the park every day, had indeed encountered the man before. About a week and a half ago, she had seen him masturbating in the Ramble area and taken a photograph of him.

The man demanded that the woman delete the photo at the time, and when she refused, he tried unsuccessfully to take her camera, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said. Late Wednesday, the police said investigators were questioning of person of interest.

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Around 11:50 a.m., the woman was birding along a wooded path near West 74th Street and Strawberry Fields when the man, whom she described as white, stocky and clean shaven, with a Russian or Ukrainian accent and in his 40s or 50s, appeared again.

After asking her if she remembered him, the suspect threw the woman to the ground, raped her and stole her backpack, which contained a digital camera with a professional lens. He also broke her wristwatch while attempting to steal it. It was not clear if the camera was the one that she had used earlier or if she had kept the photos from the earlier encounter, which she never reported to the police, Mr. Browne said.

The woman was taken to a hospital, where she was interviewed by investigators with the Special Victims Unit, as police officers spread out across the park in search of the suspect.

Mr. Mitchell was charged with rape, assault, predatory sex act, criminal sex act, robbery and criminal possess of stolen property.

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Eric Ozawa, a writing instructor at New York University, said that he had been bird-watching in the park when he saw a person’s legs sticking out onto the wood-chip path, and at first thought the person was sleeping. Then he saw the woman sit up on the path, which is lined with shrubs and trees.

The woman had mulch sticking to parts of her face, which was badly bruised, Mr. Ozawa said. Her forehead was swollen; the area around her right eye was turning blue. She waved him over and told him that she had been raped, he said.

Mr. Ozawa said he called 911 and handed her the phone.

“She was very lucid, given the circumstances,” Mr. Ozawa said. “She was able to describe what had happened.”

But she struggled to provide the dispatcher with her exact park location, so she handed the phone back to Mr. Ozawa, who then guided uniformed officers to the victim, he said.

“I went and got them and brought them over,” Mr. Ozawa said. “They were in a different part of Strawberry Fields.”

Mr. Ozawa said that the area was crowded at the time. Just before reaching the path where he encountered the victim, he had threaded through a cluster of tourists at the nearby “Imagine” memorial, to John Lennon, he said.

“For something like this to happen in broad daylight is particularly horrifying, and to someone of her age,” Mr. Ozawa said. “It took me a while, I think, to really register what had happened. It was such a shock. The park has seemed so safe for so long.”

Mr. Ozawa said he had arrived on the path just moments after the attack. “I wish I had been able to do something to stop it, if only I had come a little earlier.”

Police officials released two blurry images of the suspect, captured by surveillance cameras; he appeared to be wearing a dark-colored polo shirt and light-colored sneakers, and was carrying two knapsacks.

Andres Fontanez, a maintenance operator for the park who often works around Strawberry Fields, said detectives showed him a photo of a white man, possibly in his 30s or 40s with longish, dark hair. He said he thought he recognized the man as a Strawberry Fields regular, but could not be certain.

Mr. Fontanez said he also believed that he knew the victim, based on the police’s description of her. He described her as a frequent Strawberry Fields visitor and bird-watcher who had a favorite bench, and often pestered him to clean up more litter. He said he always addressed her as “Moms.”

“She’s a nice, old lady, she don’t bother no one,” he said. “She’s always in there, sitting down on the same bench, trying to make sure the park is as nice as it should be.”

Nate Schweber and Mosi Secret contributed reporting.