Suspect in 3 Central Park rapes arrested in Florida, NYPD says

We want to bring you up to speed. NYPD making an arrest of a man wanted for a horrible rape attack in Central Park, as well as a couple of others. This is the person that we're talking about. But as we mentioned right before the break, our Lisa Evers is standing by. She's been working on this for us, and we want to check in with Lisa to get all of the details in this arrest. Lisa, you got us? Yes, Antoine, I do. I do have you. This is an arrest that NYPD just announced this afternoon, and it just it touches on so many important points that we've been talking about on Newsroom Live and also on the Fox 5 News during our various shows. This goes back to the October 24th, a rape of a woman here in Central Park at the 66th Street. She was dragged from this, according to detectives, dragged from the 66th Street and Fifth Avenue entrance. ...dragged further into the park where she was allegedly raped. Now, the suspect, they had the surveillance video, and as we've seen with so many of the other videos, the person is wearing a hoodie, he's dressed all in black, he was carrying a backpack. Now, we just learned this afternoon, just a short time ago from NYPD, they announced that the NYPD detectives, along with the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Apprehension Task Force, They took into custody a man named Gary. Derek Rivera de Leon, they grabbed him at a Burger King where he was working in Miami. This is how far these detectives and these U.S. Marshals go to try to track these suspects down. So he's working at the Burger King. In come the U.S. Marshals, in come the NYPD detectives that are working with that fugitive apprehension task force. They grabbed him. Now, here's the thing that's really interesting and disconcerting at the same time. They are charging him in this rape on October 24th of the woman here in Central Park. You can hear that's Fifth Avenue that you're hearing right here, for allegedly raping her. They are... The NYPD is saying they are also charging him with two other rapes in Central Park. Antoine, one that happened in 2023, another one that happened in 2021. Now, this goes back to something that the former NYPD lieutenant commander of detectives, Ralph Salento, has said here on Newsroom Live when we've interviewed him. When we interviewed him about this particular case, he said the rapists have a particular method. They usually only rape and they do it repeatedly. And that's exactly what seems to be happening in this case. Right here is that they're charging him not just for the one that happened on October 24th, but also with the ones that happened in 2023 and 2021 in Central Park. So that's the latest that we have, but this Fugitive Apprehension Task Force has been working very closely, the U.S. Marshals, with the NYPD detectives. They have specific detectives from the NYPD who are assigned to work with them because, you know, the NYPD, they have jurisdiction. In New York City, but they need to have federal jurisdiction in order to. Go after these suspects in other states and in other regions affiliated with the United States and other places, other countries where they have arrangements. But this is, it's just a spectacular work because you saw that surveillance video that you've just been showing how difficult it is to get an ID. But the surveillance video and the detectives who work particularly with these videos, that they get to try and solve these crimes, as we just saw. With the Brooklyn jogger, with Katie Suarez, they work these videos, they sequence these videos, they go by timestamps on these videos. Look at this individual, he's walking along Fifth Avenue, the suspect. They get him in the part of the park where he allegedly raped the woman. There were no cameras, it was very dimly lit. He literally dragged her in there and then allegedly raped her there. They've been doing phenomenal work with this video has been a tremendous assistance to law enforcement to try and bring closure to these cases where these suspects think if they put a hoodie over their head or they put on a mask that they can get away with these crimes. And the NYPD and the U.S. Marshals saying wherever you are, we're going to find you and we're going to bring you back to justice. So now I think the next step will be we haven't confirmed it yet with the Manhattan D.A. who will probably get this case. But probably the next step will be for them to get an extradition order from him from Florida to bring him back into New York so that he can face the very unpleasant music, face the consequences of these alleged actions and face trial or make a plea in these particular cases. But Antoine, a very big discovery, a very big break in this case where they actually tracked him down. I mean, imagine he's there working in the Burger King. Do you want to supersize it, taking orders on the headset there, and then in walk the U.S. Marshals and the detectives, and they just grab him right up, capture him, and he's in federal custody right now in Miami. And we'll be awaiting details about extradition. Usually that typically takes in these cases, as we've seen in other cases where the suspects were captured out of state. It can take days. Sometimes it can even take a couple weeks, depending upon the Florida state judicial process for an extradition. But they wasted no time in grabbing this guy up. And obviously, he was on the radar because of these particular, these previous incidents that he allegedly is responsible for. But Antoine, very good news, but also a warning to women as well. Well, this woman was sitting on a bench on Fifth Avenue, which. You know, pretty much all around the clock has, in the early evening, you know, around the clock, there's cars, there's traffic, there's people taking walks, there's people walking their dogs. So it's that women really need to be extra careful, even in the daytime, and especially now that it gets dark so early. During the day, Antoine, Lisa, before you get away, can you just talk a little bit more about the relationship between the NYPD and the U.S. Marshals? Because, again, this this was a quick turnaround. We remember when you and Ralph Salento were talking about this, just like the next day after we got the information. Right. This happened. But just talk a little bit about that relationship between the U.S. Marshals and the NYPD and just law enforcement in general. Well, this is it's very important. I'm glad you asked that question because this is something I was thinking about. There's there's a big controversy going on now about the NYPD by the new state law. Their police departments are not supposed to cooperate with ICE. But there's a lot of cooperation between the city, city law enforcement, the NYPD, Port Authority police, the local sheriffs, and then also the local regional and county police departments. As well as with the state police as well, and then with federal agencies. A lot of it goes back originally to the counterterrorism efforts that were put in place after 9-11. But with the marshals in particular, this is a very close relationship. These detectives work with the marshals. They go through the cases. They study the cases. And I was on one of the gang takedowns that I did when I was embedded with the NYPD for about three or four years worth of cases. The U.S. Marshals, they also have technology. Before they kicked down the door or went into an apartment, they had fiber optic video cameras that would go under the door, could fit through a little tiny crack underneath the door. Make sure there were no people, no children around, you know, that type of thing. But with these suspects, it's of tremendous, the cooperation is of tremendous importance because they can move very, very quickly. I guarantee that since this rape happened, there have been detectives working on this around the clock and from everything that my sources are telling me and working with the U.S. Marshals. The U.S. Marshals going through their files, going through their reports that they have, going through their database, going through the federal database. They are able to act in a much more, how should we say, decisive manner in terms of taking people into custody. They have the authority to do it. They're able to do some things that NYPD by statute is not allowed to do because they're a local police department. As federal officers, federal law enforcement officers, they have other things they can do. But I think you're seeing in this case, we also saw it with the case with the mother and the 8-month-old baby who was thrown over the balcony. By the estranged husband, I got to give this guy a two. All right, Lisa, look, we know you're busy. We'll let you go, Lisa. Our street soldier, thank you so much for bringing us up to speed, and we'll look for you in our evening newscast.