N.Y. police question suspect in mugging of 101-year-old

The city’s most notorious mugging suspect -- a man whose image was captured on a security video as he assaulted a 101-year-old grandmother leaving her Queens home for church -- may finally be behind bars, police said Friday.

Jack Rhodes, 44, was being questioned by Queens detectives Friday night in connection with the March 4 mugging of Rose Morat, police said.

Rhodes, who was arrested earlier Friday in Brooklyn for possession of a crack pipe, also is being investigated in an attack on an 85-year-old woman that occurred just after the assault on Morat and a Dec. 30 mugging of another woman, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

“If it’s the right man, it’s wonderful,” Morat said from her home. But she cautioned she couldn’t be of much help to investigators. “I can’t identify him,” she said. “My eyes aren’t that good.”

The attack on Morat made headlines worldwide when police released security camera footage showing her being pummeled by a man inside her building.

A half an hour later, the man is believed to have struck again, beating Solange Elizee, 85, inside her apartment, punching her in the face, police said.

The woman in the Dec. 30 assault, in the same area of Queens, has picked Rhodes out of a photo array, a police source said. In that attack, a man punched her in the face and took her handbag, police said.

In the assault on Morat, the suspect had a bicycle with him and held the door for her, claiming he liked to help the elderly.

Morat, who uses her walker to get around, withstood the first blow to her face. When she tried to take back her purse, the assailant knocked her to the ground. The attacker fractured Morat’s cheekbone and stole $33 from her, police said.

Elizee, now living in a senior center, did not want to comment Friday, an employee there said.

Rhodes has robbery and burglary convictions in Queens for which he served eight years in prison, ending in 2003, police said.

This report includes information from the Associated Press.