A homeless man was assaulted on Saturday for the heinous rape on New Year’s Eve by a fake deliveryman, thanks to Manhattan cops who spotted a walker in a canary yellow jacket – the same distinctive color the attacker wore, sources told The Post said.
Public safety officers with the 13th District were sitting in a police car near the scene of the rape at East 30th Street and Third Avenue in Kip’s Bay at 1 a.m., when a man in an inflated yellow jacket describing the rapist fits, right in front of them, sources said.
They recognized him from surveillance photos, sources said after the arrest of Elijah Kelly, 23, who lived in the nearby and infamous 30th Street Men’s Shelter next to Bellevue Hospital.
The massive 1000-bed facility sheltered dozens of homeless sex offenders simultaneously.
Kelly has at least three allegations of strangulation on his rap page, the earliest from fights with women in 2017 and 2019, police said. It was unclear what the disposition of the two cases was.
At the time of the rape, Kelly was released without bail from a Queens opening lawsuit in the May case. He has had an additional open petit larceny case since June, also in Queens, according to public records.
His attorney for these two public cases did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kelly was arrested on New Year’s Eve rape without incident – wearing the same jacket he wore during the rape.
Kelly allegedly still had the victim’s debit card – and a receipt for the ATM withdrawal – in his jacket pocket.
The 27-year-old victim opened her door just before noon on New Year’s Eve, believing she was giving birth, only to be strangled unconscious by the suspect, police said.
She regained consciousness when she was raped, she told police.
Kelly is charged with rape, robbery, assault, strangulation, burglary, major harassment and sexual abuse.
At the men’s shelter on Saturday night, Kelly’s fellow residents told The Post he gave homeless men a bad name – and that they were glad the violent crime had been solved.
“It makes it look bad to us,” said Hector Miolan Perez, 37.
“I’m glad they caught him. You do not want such people in the area. This makes it look bad for the shelter. ”
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Sam Raskin