A man who allegedly kidnapped a nine-year-old girl from a Queens supermarket and forced her to perform sexual acts was killed during a police chase, police said.
According to NYPD officials, the girl was with her grandmother at a Key Food grocery store in Queens Village around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday when the unknown man approached them.
Police said the man, later identified as 64-year-old Wayne Noel, led her out of the store, got into his Honda Civic, drove a few blocks and sexually assaulted her.
At a news conference Friday afternoon, Deputy Chief of Criminal Investigation Jason Savino said a passerby noticed the assault and tried to stop him. He said Noel then drove to another location and continued the assault, then left the girl on the street.
He was later caught driving by the police and stopped.
“The driver refused and recklessly ran a stop sign and struck another vehicle,” Savino said. Noel was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Savino said Noel was arrested in 2022 for a robbery in which he forced a woman into his car before she could escape.
This story has been updated to reflect new police information that the suspect was killed during a chase.
