A scooter-riding ex-con wanted for knocking out and raping a woman in Queens was nabbed Thursday after barricading himself inside a Brooklyn apartment, cops and a police source said.
Tony Kempsey, 58 and homeless, voluntarily surrendered to police after barricading himself inside a Brownsville apartment on Junius St. near Glenmore Ave. at about 12:45 p.m., according to authorities.
The three-time ex-con was hit with rape, assault and sexual abuse charges for attacking and raping a 49-year-old woman on April 30 on 48th Ave. near 72nd St. in Elmhurst.
NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said the victim had just left a house party three blocks away to get some air when Kempsey rode up on a scooter and began talking to her around 5 a.m.
The woman then hopped on the scooter and he drove them to a “desolate” block where he attacked her.
“The rape was caught on video, and it’s pretty brutal,” Essig said. “Knocks her to the ground. Knocks her out. She sustained bleeding to the brain. It was a traumatic incident, so she doesn’t recall a lot.”
The victim was rushed to Elmhurst Medical Center and was recovering as of Wednesday.
Kempsey drove off and cops couldn’t track him on video afterward. Essig said investigators found video of him before the rape, entering a building in Lefrak City to visit someone he knows.
At one point, the camera clearly captured his face and police were able to identify him.
Essig said Kempsey has 10 prior arrests, most recently for slashing someone in 2017 while impersonating a cop.
Kempsey did three stints in state prison, most notably 20 years for a 1992 Queens murder at the Roosevelt Ave. subway station.
He got into an argument on the E train with Amaury Rodriguez, who pulled a handgun and fired several rounds in the melee. Kempsey, who was struck in the head, exited the train and happened upon an off-duty NYPD detective.
Kempsey pointed out the gunman to the detective. Before he could even place cuffs on him, Kempsey then swung a kama at Rodriguez’s head, fatally piercing the 20-year-old’s skull and brain. A kama is a martial arts weapon that looks like a sickle with a short handle.
Kempsey was convicted a year later, but that was overturned on a technicality. He was later retried and convicted a second time.
He was earlier paroled in March 1990, after a one-year stint for stolen property possession. Before that, he was conditionally released on parole after serving 2½ years for burglary.