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Englewood police had been looking for city resident Oscar Ruiz, 35, since being alerted by the NYPD several days ago.
“We work with them on almost daily basis on many things,” Detective Capt. Timothy Torell told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “We have a solid network of communication.”
Around 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon, Detectives Michael Hargrave and Adolfo Gutierrez spotted Ruiz in the Palisade Court shopping area near Staples, Torell said.
“He apparently knew he was being sought and was entirely compliant,” he added.
The 33-year-old victim was with her 8-month-old baby on Sept. 27 when Ruiz came up from behind and unsuccessfully tried to rape her with a broken bottle in Fort Tryon Park, off the Henry Hudson Parkway in Washington Heights, New York City police said.
Both of them fell to the ground, and the stroller was knocked over, they said.
Defending herself with a tire pump, the woman beat him on the head, cutting him and sending him running. Her infant was OK, the NYPD said at the time.
“I just kept going. Nothing was going through my head except hit him, hit him, hit him,” the woman told ABC TV. “I was protecting [my baby] for sure. I was not going to go down like that.
“I was prepared to kill this man.”
A sketch was released. Then, last week, New York City detectives identified the assailant as Ruiz.
NYPD investigators armed with warrants interviewed him shortly after Englewood detectives grabbed Ruiz yesterday afternoon.
He was being held in the Bergen County Jail on a fugitive-from-justice charge sworn out by Englewood police while an extradition hearing was being set.
Ruiz (MUGSHOT: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD, SKETCH: NYPD)
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