by Paul Bass | Apr 4, 2012 8:23 am

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Posted to: The Heights

A crowd helped police catch an alleged rapist in Fair Haven Heights.

The incident occurred last Thursday. Here’s what happened, according to Sgt. Vincent Anastasio, East Shore’s top cop:

(Caution: This article contains disturbing information.)

A 30-year-old woman was taking a shower around 5 p.m. in a low-income housing complex in the Heights neighborhood. Her 54-year-old father barged in. He’d been drinking.

“He knocked her down in the tub. He started crawling all over her,” Anastasio reported. “She tried to fight him off.”

At one point the woman drifted out of consciousness. “She woke to find out he had penetrated her.”

Meanwhile the woman’s 7-year-old daughter was standing there. “Poppy, Poppy!” she implored her grandfather. “Stop hitting Mommy!”

A neighbor happened to walk by in the hallway. The apartment door was open; the neighbor could see what was happening. She called 911 to report the rape in progress with a young child present. Cops swarmed to the scene.

When they arrived, the man had fled. Sgt. Rose Turney, the first to arrive, stayed with the victims. She broadcast the description they gave her of the attacker.

Sgt. Anthony Zona and Officer Eddie DeJesus, the next to arrive, from the Fair Haven district, began searching the area; Anastasio joined them soon after. Some 30 people were hanging out; when word got around about the attack, people wanted to help.

“One guy comes up to me and walks us over to [a different nearby] apartment complex where he’s supposedly at,” Anastasio said. The man pointed to an apartment. The three cops entered and found the alleged attacker hiding in the bathroom.

“There was a struggle,” Anastasio said. “He tried to fight us. He lost.”

The arrestee, who Anastasio said served time in jail in the 1990s for rape, was charged with sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor, and interfering with police. He remains in jail on a $250,000 bond pending a scheduled April 17 court plea.