EAST ELMHURST, Queens (WABC) -- Police say a man put a handkerchief over a woman's mouth and threatened to kill her before throwing her to the ground in an attack in Queens.
It was in a dark alley in East Elmhurst - next to garbage - that a 32-year-old woman was thrown onto the cold, icy ground.
Police say a yell from a witness who says she saw the whole thing may have saved the victim's life.
"I kinda lift up the window and I kinda heard someone say in Spanish, 'I have three kids, I have three kids,'" she said.
Speaking exclusively with Eyewitness News, the Good Samaritan, who does not want to be identified, called 911 after hearing the cries from her house just before 6 a.m. Friday.
"As I opened my gate door - is when I saw the person on top of the lady, and that's when I started yelling at him," she said.
The Good Samaritan scared him off. The man, police say, was caught on security video. The woman who witnessed the attempted rape tried to catch him herself.
"I just ran after him, but I knew I wasn't going to make it, because first of all, I wasn't wearing the right shoes, and then it's slippery," she said.
While it is still relatively early in the investigation, a police source says preliminarily that it appears the victim had just gotten off a late shift at a local bar or restaurant and was walking home - apparently cutting through the alleyway behind homes on 94th Street, when she was followed and attacked.
The suspected attacker left her with one pant leg pulled down. Had someone not heard her cries, this may have been more than an attempted rape.
"I would be happy that I was able to stop that - that I was there at the right time," the Good Samaritan added.
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