Kevin Larkin / AP
This May 1994 file photo shows an exterior view of the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village section of New York, site of the 1969 riot that sparked the Gay Rights Movement. New York City police are searching for a man suspected of sexually assaulting a transgender woman in a bathroom at the historic Stonewall Inn bar. Police said Monday, March 28, 2016, the victim was in the unisex bathroom when the unknown man enters and apparently sexually assaults her.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 | 12:02 a.m.
NEW YORK — New York City police detectives are looking for a man who they say sexually assaulted a transgender woman at the Stonewall Inn, the Greenwich Village bar with a central role in starting the gay rights movement, the authorities said on Monday.
The woman told investigators she was drinking at the bar on Saturday night around 11:30 p.m. when she went upstairs to use a unisex bathroom, the police said.
While she was washing her hands, a man entered the room and said he wanted to wash his hands, the police said. He touched her without her permission and then sodomized her, they said.
The woman told the police that she had indicated her lack of consent to the man, but did not resist out of fear of being hurt.
The man left the bathroom, only to return shortly thereafter to grope the woman again before leaving, the police said.
The woman, 25, who was treated at Lenox Health Greenwich Village hospital, called 911 around 1 a.m. on Sunday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called the episode “very troubling,” when asked about it at a news conference on Monday.
“Look, it’s a very disturbing incident taking place in a site that’s very important historically and where something good happened in terms of creating more opportunity for people to live their lives,” he said.
The Stonewall Inn’s reputation as a historic battleground for gay rights traces to 1969, when a police raid at the bar touched off days of riots and marches. It was designated a New York City landmark in June and is also on the National Register of Historic Places.
The bar said in a statement on Monday that it was working closely with police.
“We are deeply saddened by the news of an allegation of sexual assault against a member of our community,” the statement read.
The police distributed a photo of the man believed to be the assailant, who they said is about 35 to 45 years old, taken from cameras at the bar.
Robert K. Boyce, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, said the police hoped to make an arrest in the next few days.
“People inside the Stonewall know him and we’ll go from there,” he said.
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