The arrest followed surveillance releases, increased park patrols and a search that extended from Manhattan to South Florida.
NEW YORK — A more than two-week search for a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman at knifepoint in Central Park ended Tuesday in Miami, where members of a federal fugitive task force arrested the suspect while he was at work, police said.
The NYPD identified the man as Dereck Rivera-Deleon and said detectives assigned to the U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force took him into custody Nov. 10 with support from the U.S. Marshals Service. Police said investigators had been looking for him since a reported Oct. 24 rape in Central Park. Authorities now say he is also connected to two earlier rape investigations in the park from 2023 and 2021.
The investigation began after police responded to the eastern side of Central Park at about 8:30 p.m. Oct. 24. Authorities said a 39-year-old woman reported that a man approached her, displayed a knife and sexually assaulted her near East 67th Street and East Drive. She was taken to a hospital in stable condition. The attacker fled before officers arrived.
Police intensified the search in the days that followed. Investigators released surveillance images and video showing the person they were trying to identify, while officers increased patrols around Central Park. Police initially described the wanted man as being in his 30s and wearing dark clothing and carrying a dark backpack.
The case drew particular attention because it occurred in one of the city’s best-known public spaces and came as police statistics showed five reported rapes in the Central Park Precinct through Oct. 25, compared with three during the same period a year earlier. The statistics reflected reported offenses and did not establish a connection among the individual cases.
On Tuesday, the investigation moved hundreds of miles south when task force detectives arrested Rivera-Deleon in Miami. Police said he was working at a Burger King at the time. Officials did not disclose how investigators identified him, how long they believed he had been in Florida or what information led them to his workplace.
The NYPD also announced a broader development in the investigation, saying Rivera-Deleon would be charged in connection with two other rapes in Central Park, one in 2023 and another in 2021. Police did not provide the dates or circumstances of those alleged attacks and did not publicly describe the evidence they say links the three cases. The identities of the women in the earlier cases were not released.
The announcement means the investigation now reaches beyond the October attack that triggered the recent search. It also leaves several major questions for prosecutors and investigators, including the precise charges to be filed in New York and the evidence connecting Rivera-Deleon to each allegation. Those details had not been made public Tuesday.
The arrest does not determine guilt, and the allegations will have to be addressed through the criminal justice system. Authorities had not announced when Rivera-Deleon would be transferred from Florida to New York or when he would make his first New York court appearance. Police said no additional details about the two older Central Park cases were immediately available.
Author note: Last updated November 10, 2026.