As incidents of rape continue to rise citywide, a man raped a 15-year-old girl at knifepoint in the stairwell of a Bronx building last week, police said on Tuesday, urging anyone else who may have been victimized by him to come forward.
Casmine Aska, 29, pulled a knife on the girl in an elevator of a Co-op City building on Bellamy Loop South around 8:20 p.m. on Thursday, according to prosecutors.
As he held the knife to her, he led her to a stairwell, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him before raping her.
After the terrifying attack, he forced the girl to spit into a napkin before he took off, leaving her in the stairwell, officials said.
Askin and the girl were strangers to each other, according to police sources.
The accused rapist was later arrested and on Sunday arraigned on charges of rape, predatory sexual assault against a child, criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child.
Askin was held without bail following the arraignment, and is currently at a Rikers Island jail pending his next court appearance.
He lives in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx, according to police.
Police released his photo and are asking anyone who may thinks they may have been attacked by him to come forward.
Anyone with information is urged to call the NYPD’s Sex Crimes Hotline at 212-267-RAPE or Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
Rapes increased by nearly 22% last month compared to the same time last year, with 140 attacks reported in February 2025, up from 115 in February 2024, according to NYPD data.
While the city is seeing a decline in what the NYPD considers six of the seven major crime categories — murder, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny of automobiles — the seventh category, rape, continues to rise.
So far this year, 298 people have reported being the victim of a rape to the NYPD. The figure is up more than 30% from the same time last year, when 229 victims came forward, according to NYPD data ending March 2.
Police believe one factor contributing to the increase is the expansion of the legal definition of rape, which took effect on Sept. 1 and now covers a broader range of forced sexual acts.
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