Gang Assault on Woman Stuns N.Y. : Investment Banker, Near Death, Victim of Park Rampage

A violent collision of two worlds at a familiar landmark has left a chilling new word firmly rooted in the dictionary of fear in New York City: Wilding .

When it was all over, eight youths were being held without bail and even veteran detectives were shocked at the callousness of a crime that left a 28-year-old investment banker comatose and on life support systems and her attackers--who confessed to assault and gang rape--nonchalantly whistling at policewomen and singing a rap song in the precinct holding pen.

The savage incident, which began when a pack of 33 teen-agers swept out of Harlem for a night of what they call wilding--attacking anyone in Central Park who looks vulnerable--has shaken crime-hardened New Yorkers.

“This is our home and I just feel it has been invaded, and it is happening more and more,” said Sylvia Asch, a schoolteacher who jogs regularly around the reservoir in the park, near where the assault occurred. The 1.6-mile track is used by tens of thousands of people, including former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and singer Madonna.

“There is no punishment that is suitable for them. They are animals, no doubt about it,” Asch said of the attackers.

“It was fun,” one of the suspects said in a written confession, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

During their rampage the teen-agers terrorized nine people before breaking up into smaller groups, police said. The jogger was beaten with a brick and a lead pipe before she was raped.

Police said the woman was discovered alongside an isolated road near the jogging path in the park. She was caked with mud and near death from brain damage caused by the beating, loss of blood and exposure to 40-degree temperatures. She suffered two skull fractures, broken facial bones, body bruises and deep knife slashes on her legs.

Police said the victim, a Wellesley College honors graduate, was exercising in the park Wednesday evening after leaving her office at Salomon Bros. Inc., where she worked in the corporate finance department. She was assaulted about 10 p.m. and was not found until 3 1/2 hours later. On Friday, 500 others from Salomon Bros. attended a Mass to pray for her recovery. Her parents were at her bedside Sunday in Metropolitan Hospital near the park.

Because of the rape police withheld the victim’s name, but hospital officials said she remained in critical condition and in a coma.

In a city where violence has escalated dramatically because of drugs, the attack, nevertheless, touched a raw nerve. Newspaper headlines labeled the teen-agers a “Wolf Pack,” and quoted one of the suspects as telling detectives that the victim “wasn’t nothing” and describing how the gang had regarded the rape and assault as “fun.”

Near the scene of the assault someone left a bouquet of carnations and tulips Saturday with a hand-written card. “Our Runner, God Bless You,” it said.

Hundreds of other runners jogged around the reservoir under a bright blue sky Sunday, past cherry blossoms and forsythia. But the assault was very much on their minds. One husky jogger, who would not give his name, said he never runs in the park after 8 p.m. Others said that if they run at night, it is always in a group.

Albert Arroyo, who is retired and began jogging in Central Park in 1935, said that in recent years assaults have become more common. He said that a man struck a woman jogger in the ribs with a karate kick, breaking several of her ribs two years ago. And, he said, he scared away three men who were attacking another man about the same time.

“The whole solution is: Don’t be in the park by yourself,” he said.

Detectives said that the youths, some as young as 14, rampaged through Central Park for 75 minutes. They attacked, among others, a homeless man and another jogger, and hurled rocks at a bicyclist. Then they attacked the woman, who struggled fiercely against them. Police said she was assaulted by 10 or 15 of the youths, who had left the larger group after it was spotted by police patrolling by car.

“I think on Wednesday night they said, ‘Let’s raise a little hell, let’s go into the park and assault and harass joggers and bicyclists,’ ” said Chief of Detectives Robert Colangelo. Other detectives said that the teen-agers had decided to go “wilding.”

In Manhattan Criminal Court on Sunday, Judge Charles Solomon ordered all eight defendants held without bail on charges of second-degree attempted murder, first degree-rape and first-degree assault.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Elizabeth Lederer said that seven of the defendants had given videotaped statements and the eighth had made a written statement. Investigators said they believed the jogger was raped by at least four of the defendants.

“Most of the statements tend to say that others did things while ‘I was there and just watched,’ ” Lederer told the judge.

Investigating officers said that none of the youths seemed to feel any regret after they were questioned, and they laughed about what they had done.