Hempstead attack suspect sought in sex assault
Originally published: September 28, 2010 10:24 AM
Updated: September 28, 2010 10:33 AM
By JOHN VALENTI john.valenti@newsday.


http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nass ... -1.2320585

A man wanted in a violent hammer attack on a Hempstead woman is also the suspect in what police called a "vicious" sexual assault on a 2-year-old girl in Texas, according to a report.

Nassau County police Det. Lt. Raymond Cote told News 12 Long Island that DNA evidence left at the scene of the hammer attack in July has been linked to the unsolved attack in Texas.

Police have not publicly identified the man. However, surveillance video from a Hempstead Home Depot captured images of the man, whom police described as a day laborer in a news release.

The images were taken July 16 at about 9 p.m. at the Home Depot on Fulton Avenue in Hempstead, police said, shortly before the victim, 51, hired the man to do repair work at her home, police said.

Police said in the release when the woman complained about the quality of that work, he "became enraged and began to strike" her in the head with a hammer, fracturing her skull.

Cote told News 12 that DNA evidence recovered at the scene linked the attacker to the sexual assault. Police public information officers said Tuesday they could not verify the link.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-244-TIPS. All calls will remain confidential, police said.