The homeless woman who was allegedly raped at knifepoint by an illegal immigrant near the Coney Island boardwalk said that she believed her assailant was trying to kill her and recalled repeatedly reminding her attacker that “God was watching him.”
Daniel Davon-Bonilla, a 24-year-old Nicaraguan migrant, is accused of sexually assaulting the unnamed woman, while his friend, Leovando Moreno, allegedly attacked the victim’s boyfriend with a pipe. The victim has chosen not to reveal her identity to the media.
In an interview published Tuesday by The New York Post, the anonymous victim recounted her struggle to fight off Davon-Bonilla, fearing he intended to murder her.
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She expressed her sorrow that assaults like hers happen to women every day, many of whom never receive justice.
“It wasn’t rape; it was attempted murder. He didn’t try to rape me; he tried to kill me,” she said. “I kept telling him God was watching him.”
At the time of the assault, the victim and her boyfriend, 34-year-old Ray Ramsammy, were living under a boardwalk behind Maimonides Park stadium. Both homeless people and migrants shared the encampment, and Ramsammy and his girlfriend had been living there for two weeks when the attack occurred.
Ramsammy returned to the encampment one day after getting coffee to find his girlfriend being sexually assaulted. He told The Post that he saw his girlfriend being held down, choked, and threatened with a knife as her attacker forced himself on her. When Ramsammy attempted to intervene, Moreno struck him with a pipe.
“I tried to pull the guy off her, and he tried to stab me,” Ramsammy said, recalling that he also yelled for someone to call the police. “I grabbed the pipe with one hand and the other one was behind me, hit me with a brick. Hit me in the back.”
While Ramsammy said he was “hurt a little,” he noted that his girlfriend was “hurt a lot” and is still trying to recover from the rape.
“She’s messed up right now. When it started getting dark out last night, she was getting paranoid,” he said. “She sees Hispanic men today, and she thinks it’s going to happen again. She’s really upset.”
The victim stated that she hopes Davon-Bonilla receives a lengthy sentence, expressing fear that he might kill someone.
According to The Post, Davon-Bonilla had already spent two months in jail after accepting a plea deal in an April 2023 rape case, where he was accused of raping a woman at a hotel converted into a migrant shelter.
As WABC reported Tuesday, the victim is a 46-year-old woman, and she was treated at a New York hospital following the assault.
Davon-Bonilla has been charged with rape, assault, sexual abuse, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, according to WABC. Moreno, who is from Mexico, has been charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon and underwent a psychological evaluation at the hospital.
Local law enforcement reports that the suspects had been staying at a migrant shelter. Regarding Davon-Bonilla’s previous conviction related to the assault at the Brooklyn migrant shelter, the outlet noted that the migrant could have been deported over the incident.
In a press conference Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams called the Coney Island attack a “despicable act” and criticized the city’s “sanctuary city” status, which prevents local authorities from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when illegal immigrants are criminally charged.
“Laws do not allow us to coordinate with ICE,” Adams said. “That’s the law. And, you know I’m not happy about that. And I think he’s the poster child of what’s wrong with not doing that coordination.”
“And that’s a traumatizing, traumatized that family that was there. They were traumatized over that event. And my heart goes out to them,” Adams added. “Those small number of migrants that are in our city, they should be held accountable when they break the law. And I think that he was, he came in illegally and then he was allowed to just to stay. I just recall hearing something about his initial entry into our country. I’m not 100% sure, but I think in one of my briefings, that’s what I heard.”
The news of the woman’s rape in New York comes shortly after an interview with three Department of Homeland Security whistleblowers, who allege that U.S. Customs and Border Protection is failing to enforce a 2005 federal DNA law.
In an interview released Sunday by former CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge, whistleblowers Michael Taylor, Fred Wynn and Mark Jones claimed that CBP retaliated against them for raising concerns about the agency’s violation of the 2005 DNA Fingerprint Act.
The law requires the border agency to collect DNA samples from non-U.S. citizens in detention for immigration violations. The DNA collected from the migrants is then sent to the FBI. According to Jones, this law helps authorities locate criminals and reduces the time needed to track them down.
Herridge asked whether the DHS’ failure to comply with the law contributed to the death of Rachel Morin, a mother of five who was killed by an illegal immigrant last August. The whistleblowers agreed that this failure may have played a role in Morin’s death. The mother’s killer had multiple encounters with border agents prior to the murder, creating several opportunities to take his DNA.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
