A 14-year-old boy was arrested Monday morning after police say he pistol-whipped and raped a 37-year-old delivery worker near a Staten Island public housing complex earlier this month. The teen, described by police as 6 feet tall and around 200 pounds, was taken into custody around 10:30 a.m. nearly three weeks after the attack, which occurred as the woman was making a delivery near the Gen. Charles W. Berry Houses in Dongan Hills.
According to New York Daily News, the teen has been charged with rape, assault, sexual abuse, criminal possession of a firearm, sexual misconduct, forcible touching, menacing and harassment. Police said he attacked the woman around 6 p.m. on September 9 near Dongan Hills Avenue and Jefferson Street while she was delivering a package, beating her with his firearm before sexually assaulting her, law enforcement sources told the outlet. The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment. His name has not been released because of his age, per the same account.
In the weeks before the arrest, investigators worked to identify a suspect who, according to Ground News, was a masked stranger to the victim when he approached her at the scene. The NYPD released a composite sketch of the suspect to solicit public tips before the teen's capture on Monday, the outlet reported, a stretch of time during which the armed attacker remained unidentified and at large in the neighborhood.
How a 14-Year-Old Ends Up in Adult Criminal Court
Despite his age, the teen is being prosecuted in the Youth Part of Criminal Court rather than Family Court. Under New York Penal Law § 10.00 and Criminal Procedure Law § 722.20, 14-year-olds charged with violent felonies such as first-degree rape can be tried as Juvenile Offenders in that adult-court venue, according to New York Lawyers — a carve-out in the state's Raise the Age framework that preserves criminal jurisdiction for the most severe violent offenses.
Moving a case like this one out of criminal court and into Family Court is not simple. Under Criminal Procedure Law § 722.22, such a transfer requires either prosecutor consent or extraordinary judicial findings — things like mitigating circumstances or evidence of only minor participation in the crime — according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. It's a high bar.
The Berry Houses and the 122nd Precinct
The attack happened just outside the Gen. Charles W. Berry Houses, a NYCHA complex of eight six-story buildings holding 506 apartments across nearly 14 acres in Dongan Hills, according to Wikipedia. The development, completed in 1950, underwent a more than $31 million heating and hot water infrastructure overhaul in November 2024, a joint effort between NYCHA and the New York Power Authority that served more than 875 residents there, according to NYC.gov.
The complex sits within the NYPD's 122nd Precinct.
Delivery Worker Safety Already Under the Microscope
The case lands amid a wider push at both the city and state level to address risks facing delivery workers. In August, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced his support for the Delivery Protection Act, a City Council bill that would mandate licensing, safety standards and employer accountability for last-mile delivery operations across the city, according to NYC.gov. State lawmakers introduced a companion effort in January, Senate Bill S9089, dubbed the Food Delivery Worker Safety and Fair Algorithms Act, aimed at shielding drivers from coercive dispatching algorithms that lawmakers say push couriers into high-risk situations, per the New York State Senate.
