MS-13 Gang Associate Raped 11-Year-Old New York City Girl, Police Say

An 18-year-old linked to a brutal El Salvadoran gang is accused of raping an 11-year-old Brooklyn girl.

Julio C. Ayala, an alleged MS-13 affiliate living a few blocks from where the girl was attacked, was arrested on Saturday and arraigned Sunday, according to the New York Times. He is charged with rape, burglary, criminal sex act, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

NYPD spokesman Sgt. Lee Jones told the Times that Ayala was born in El Salvador and “is affiliated with MS-13.” When he was arrested, Ayala was carrying a forged green card and a forged Social Security card, according to the criminal complaint against him, obtained by Oxygen.com.

According to that complaint, Ayala climbed through the 11-year-old victim’s second-floor bedroom window shortly before midnight on Wednesday.

Ayala climbed into the girl's bed, licked her and raped her, police said.

Chillingly, her brother was in the bottom of the two-bed bunk when it happened, according to the complaint.

After Ayala left, the girl screamed and her family called 911. She was treated at a local hospital and released, according to the Times.

Meanwhile, Ayala escaped. On Saturday, the NYPD released surveillance footage of the suspect and asked for the public’s help in finding him.

Within hours, a tip led to Ayala's identification — and as cops were knocking on his door, he fled his apartment through a window. He was soon captured after tactical police units cornered him in a construction site around the corner from his apartment, according to the Times.

When police brought Ayala out of the site, a crowd gathered, seemingly aware that the man accused of raping an 11-year-old girl in their Prospect-Lefferts Gardens neighborhood had been apprehended.

“People were yelling, saying, ‘Put him behind the bars. That guy, never let go,’” one man, Mike Picereli, 54, told the Times.

Vallan Peters, 52, works at a sewing shop two doors from where Ayala was cornered, and told the Times that police had to protect Ayala from the angry mob when they brought him out.

“He wasn’t actually coming out because the mob was angry, so the cops tried to protect him and shield him,” Peters said.

During Ayala’s arraignment, assistant Brooklyn District Attorney Victoria Nunez said Ayala admitted he was in the girl’s bedroom.

“I have never done anything like that before,” he allegedly said, according to the Times.

The victim, however, failed to identify Ayala in a lineup, Nunez said, but the perpetrator did leave behind a red Chicago Bulls cap that he was seen wearing on surveillance video before the attack, according to prosecutors, who will attempt to link the hat via DNA analysis to Ayala.

Anna Boksenbaum, Ayala’s lawyer, said at his arraignment that he lived with an aunt, uncle and two cousins in Brooklyn, and worked full time for his family's air-conditioning company.

Ayala is currently behind bars in lieu of $500,000 bail. He is due back in court Sept. 7.

[Photo: NYPD]