Cops: Stuy Town Rapist Caught! Some Fault Slow Response by Management to Alert Residents

Germaine Parham, a 33-year-old male who is accused of raping a 14 year old girl in the lobby and elevator of a Stuyvestant Town building near E. 18th St. and the First Ave. Loop Rd. has been caught, cops said.

“Members of the NYPD assigned to the US Marshals’ New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force in assistance with the Capital Region Regional Fugitive Taskforce apprehended Germaine Parham in connection with this heinous crime,” the NYPD posted on its X account on Feb. 3.

The sexual assault happened in the late morning of Jan. 29 around 11:40 a.m. and had horrified the community of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village which has about 25,000 residents on the East Side of Manhattan between 14th St. and 23rd St. and from 1st Ave. of the East River. Although it is a non-doorman complex, it has its own security force and is ordinarily among the safest neighborhoods in Manhattan with playgrounds for kids and on-site gyms for adults.

Few details were available initially on how the fugitive suspect was apprehended. He was known to have a long rap sheet and over 30 previous arrests.

Police within two days of the attack, had an ID on the suspect and circulated a Crime Stopper photo as it sought the public’s help in apprehending him.

It was not clear initially what tips if any led them to the suspect although the work with the US marshalls from the New York/New Jersey Fugitive Task Force and the Capital Region Task force suggests it was a far-reaching dragnet.

It was not clear at press time exactly where Parham was being held.

The complex is owned by the Blackstone Group and managed by Beam Living. But residents are faulting management for a tardy response to the heinous crime. On day one, management sent a text only to residents of 300 1st Ave. telling them there was “police activity in your building” and the M [Mezzanine] level, one of the two entrance/exits to the building was closed. But no mention of the nature of the crime or that a suspect was on the loose was disclosed.

An email to the wider community of 25,000 residents did not go out until two days after the sexual took place. And in that one, it said only that a “serious crime” had taken place and no notice that a person wanted in the sexual assault was still on the loose.

“We’re obviously relieved that he has been caught but we’re not sure we have the proper safety protocols in place,” said Susan Steinberg, president of the Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association.

She said the notice from management did not go out until after the Tenants Association had made their own email blast to its members on Jan. 31. The management blast came out several hours later and did not contain the Crime Stoppers photos.

When Our Town spoke with Steinberg shortly before 5 p.m. on Feb. 3, she said she was preparing another email blast to members to inform them that a suspect had been caught and planned to invite them to a town hall at a yet to be determined time and place.

She said she’d also be inviting “various electeds” to the town hall. “There’s is a lot we still don’t know,” she said.

Former City Council member Keith Powers who is running for NYS Assembly seat against Republican Joe Foley and is a second-generation Stuy Town resident said he will be reaching out to management about their response.

“Like many of my neighbors I am relieved to find out that the culprit was apprehended,” said Powers. “I have heard from countless neighbors who are concerned about the safety protocols in place and I have relayed those to management.”

He said he would be reaching out to management “to discuss ways to update our protocols in light of resident concerns.”

Virginia Maloney, who succeeded term-limited Powers in the City Council said, “I was deeply disturbed to her reports of last week’s horrifying attack on a child is Stuy Town. I am grateful to the NYPD for arresting the suspect.”