Police Nab Suspect for Attacking NYU Student, Four Burglaries
Police arrested 45-year-old James Rizzo, who was out on a parole and charged him with three additional sexual assaults including one on an NYU student on Dec. 1 and four burglaries in a single day.
| 07 Dec 2025 | 08:23
Amelia Lewis, the victim of an attack on Dec. 1, posted an emotional video on Tik Tok within hours of her assault, saying she wanted to warn others of the danger posed by her attacker. Police subsequently arrested a homeless man with at least 16 prior arrests including burglary and sexual assault. (
)
Surveillance video allegedly shows James Rizzo about to slap NYU student Amelia Lewis on the butt and knocked her to the ground and pulled her hair. She immediately posted a Tik Tok video. Police linked him to the sexual attack after police arrested him an vacant apartment where a string of burglaries had taken place. (
)
Within hours of an assault, a 20-year-old NYU student had posted an emotional video about the attack on TikTok which helped police nab the man alleged to be wanted for burglaries and at least two earlier attacks against women.
The NYPD found the alleged attacker in a vacant apartment in Washington Square Village on Dec. 2 where a string of burglaries had taken place. Police said they arrested James Rizzo, 45 and charged him in connnection with the attack on the NYU student as well as two earlier unsolved attacks on women. He was charged with persistent sexual abuse, forcible touching and assault. Rizzo, had 16 prior arrests and was out on parole after serving time for sex abuse, according to the New York State Department of Corrections. The most recent victim, Amelia Lewis in an emotional post on TikTok described how she was attacked near the intersection of Waverly Place and Broadway at 735 Broadway while enroute to a class.
”I was like, ‘what the hell was that’, Lewis said on the TikTok video. She was slapped from behind on the butt and pushed to the ground by her attacker who grabbed her hair, sending her headphones flying.
“I just really want to emphasize how not OK this is,” Lewis said in a tearful online video. “I’m honestly still in shock, but I’m more enraged that things like this are able to happen in this city, and we really need to do something about it because this is unacceptable.”
She said police told her they were already looking for the suspect in connection with earlier incidents regarding attacks on women.
”It’s really sad. This is something that happens all the time in New York, and I really want to make sure I use my voice and keep others protected and also help other girls that have maybe gone through the same experience as I,” Lewis said.
But it was a burglary spree that led police to Rizzo and connected him to the sexual attacks. Police said Rizzo was wanted for four burglaries in Manhattan all committed on Dec. 2 in a building at Bleeker and Mercer St. in a complex known as Washington Square Village. Police found him in a vacant apartment in the building in possesion of the items taken in early morning heists in four other apartments. Among the haul of items allegedly stolen were four lap top computer, two back packs, keys to an automobile, clothes, a suitcase, a yoga mat, a Brita water container and other items.
After that arrest, police said Rizzo, who had at leasst 16 prior arrests was linked to the attack on Lewis as well as a number of prior on woman attacks including a random punching of a 59-year-old woman on Mercer Street in December 2023 and another involving a 68-year-old tourist from Houston, who was in New York celebrating Thanksgiving when she was attacked while walking down Fifth Ave. That victim said a man started screaming obscenities at her and then slammed her into a plate glass window, creating a bruising a cut that required six stitches.
He was released from prison in September after serving time for a sexual assault but had last checked in with his parole officer on Oct. 23. A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney said Rizzo was denied bail. He was scheduled to face charges of parole violation in the Bronx before returning to criminal court in Manhattan on Dec. 8 to face the most recent charges.