Metro

NYC man with 15 prior arrests busted for groping 3 young women: sources

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Published Nov. 8, 2023
Updated Nov. 8, 2023, 6:58 p.m. ET

A Queens man with more than a dozen prior arrests — including one for assaulting a cop — was busted this week for allegedly groping three young women and separately threatening a 7-Eleven employee with a knife and a metal pipe, prosecutors and law enforcement sources said.

David Perez, 33, of Middle Village – whose rap sheet includes 15 prior busts, seven this year alone, according to sources – was arrested Sunday when he refused to leave a 7-Eleven on Metropolitan Avenue, according to a criminal complaint.

A worker at the convenience store followed him outside and the men got into a heated dispute, the court document says.

Perez then pointed a knife at the clerk and began swinging it in his direction, prosecutors charge.

In his other hand, Perez held a metal pipe that he used to swing at the worker as he snarled, “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill your mom, and I’m going to kill your sister,” according to the court document.

Perez “grazed” the side of the worker’s body with the knife before taking off, according to the complaint. 

David Perez, 33, of Middle Village, is accused of groping three women, ages 24 and 25, in two separate incidents.
David Perez, 33, of Middle Village, is accused of groping three women in two separate incidents. NYPD

When police caught up to the menace, he kept running, fleeing through an alleyway, where he tossed the pipe, according to prosecutors.

He was ultimately arrested and charged with menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, attempted assault and harassment, prosecutors said. 

Perez was also charged Sunday in connection to the Oct. 4 groping incidents, police said. 

He first approached a 24-year-old woman who was walking in front of the Queens Center Mall on Queens Boulevard near 90th Street in Elmhurst around 1:20 p.m., cops said. 

Perez, a stranger to the woman, grabbed her buttocks from behind and took off, authorities said. 

Four hours later, he approached two women, ages 24 and 25 — also strangers — who were walking at Metropolitan Avenue and 65th Place, near the Fresh Pond Crematory and All Faiths Cemetery, cops said.

He grabbed the buttocks of both women before fleeing, police said. 

A surveillance image of David Perez, 33.
Perez was busted in late May for a domestic assault, and then attacking a cop at that scene, police said. NYPD

None of the three victims were physically hurt, according to authorities.

Perez was charged with forcible touching, sexual abuse and harassment, prosecutors said.

He was released without bail in connection to both incidents on Monday, records show.

Perez was previously arrested in late May, according to cops and prosecutors. 

In that case, he allegedly entered his ex-gf’s home without permission on May 19, and she called the cops the next day, according to that court document.

Perez allegedly pushed a responding cop into the wall, before grabbing the officer and pulling them onto the floor of the apartment to avoid being handcuffed, prosecutors said.  

He then allegedly ran away, escaping from police. 

Perez was busted when he showed up outside his ex’s CVS job on May 29 and punched her in the mouth, causing bruising and substantial pain, according to the complaint. 

He was charged with assault, criminal trespass, obstructing governmental administration, escape, resisting arrest and harassment, the court document states.

In that case, Perez was sentenced on June 2 to 90 days in jail, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.