A 45-year-old man with a long history of sexual offenses and violent crimes has been charged in connection with an attack on a New York University student near the school’s Manhattan campus.
According to the NYPD, the suspect, James Rizzo, allegedly approached a 20-year-old student from behind on Monday morning, slapped her head and buttocks, pulled her hair, and knocked her to the ground before fleeing.
Rizzo, a career criminal, committed a similar attack just days earlier in Manhattan. He allegedly shoved a 68-year-old woman who was walking on Fifth Avenue near West 47th Street around 8:45 pm on Thanksgiving Day, police said, according to the New York Post.
The incident concerning the NYU student was captured on surveillance video, which the victim posted on social media, and helped police identify and arrest Rizzo the following day. Authorities have said he faces charges including persistent sexual abuse, forcible touching, assault, and burglary. Police told Fox News he has been arrested 16 times and was still on active parole at the time of the attack.
Who is James Rizzo?
Rizzo is a New York City man with a decades-long criminal record that includes sex offenses, assaults, and burglary, according to Fox News, ABC7, and The New York Post. He appears on the New York State Sex Offender Registry as a Level 2 offender with a conviction for forcible touching in March 2023.
After serving a two-year state sentence for persistent sexual abuse, he was released on parole in September and remained under supervision on Monday.
Police sources told Fox News that his prior arrests include sexual abuse, forcible touching, repeated assaults on women, and burglary. The New York Post reported he was arrested for murder in 1997 when he was 17, though state records show no murder conviction. He was also charged with attempted murder that year for allegedly beating and stabbing a man in Brooklyn.
More recent arrests include a December 2023 incident in which Rizzo allegedly groped a 33-year-old woman in Greenwich Village. Police have additionally connected him to four burglaries in a Manhattan building.
Rizzo was arrested Tuesday after officers responded to a call about a man sleeping in a building. Investigators then tied him to the attack on the NYU student, identified on social media as Amelia Lewis. Surveillance footage shows Lewis being knocked to the ground, with bystanders rushing to help her.
In videos posted online, Lewis described the assault as unprovoked and “the scariest experience of [her] life.” She said she shared the footage with NYU security, which forwarded it to police. NYU spokesperson John Beckman said the university “takes this incident very seriously” and is offering support to the student while assisting investigators.