A homeless man was arrested Saturday for the horrific New Year’s Eve rape by a fake delivery boy, thanks to Manhattan police who saw a jaywalker in a canary-yellow jacket – the same signature color worn by the attacker, sources told The Post.
Public security officers of the 13th Precinct were in a police car near the site of the rape on East 30th Street and Third Avenue in Kip’s Bay at 1 a.m. when a man in a puffy yellow jacket matching the description of the rapist 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 1,000-bed facility has simultaneously taken in dozens of homeless sex offenders.
Kelly has at least three allegations of strangulation on his rap magazine, the first of fights with women in 2017 and 2019, police sources said. It was unclear what the scope of those two cases was.
At the time of the rape, Kelly had been released without bail in an open Queens felony case as of May. He had an open petty theft case as of June, also in Queens, public records show.
His attorney regarding those two pending cases did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kelly was taken into custody without incident on New Year’s Eve – in the same jacket he wore during the rape, sources said.
Kelly reportedly had the victim’s debit card – and a receipt from an ATM – still in his jacket pocket.
The 27-year-old victim had opened her door just before noon on New Year’s Eve in the belief that she was going to give birth, but was strangled unconscious by the suspect, police said.
She regained consciousness when she was raped, she told police.
Kelly is charged with rape, theft, assault, strangulation, burglary, grand theft and sexual abuse.
At the Men’s Shelter on Saturday night, Kelly’s inmates told The Post that he gives homeless men a bad name – and that they were glad the violent crime had been solved.
“It looks bad for us,” said 37-year-old resident Hector Miolan Perez.
“I’m glad they caught him. You don’t want people like that around. It looks bad for the shelter. “
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Sam Raskin