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Boro dad who stopped rape gets daughter free party

Boro dad who stopped rape gets daughter free party
Photo by Howard Koplowitz
By Howard Koplowitz

A Whitestone civic leader who owns a party place on Clintonville Street rewarded a U.S. Marine veteran who thwarted a rape near the Cross Island Parkway in August by hosting his daughter’s second birthday celebration for free.

Bryan Teichman, a 31-year-old ex-Marine and Fresh Meadows resident, was in the living room of his daughter’s baby-sitter’s home when he heard a commotion in the woods by the Cross Island Parkway service road near 148th Street and chased away a man who was about to rape a woman in the brush.

Teichman’s heroism led to the arrest two days later of Kenneth King, of 42-32 201st St. in Bayside.

“The guy was on top of her in the woods,” Teichman recalled during his daughter’s birthday party at Dabby’s Party World in Whitestone, saying he acted on instinct.

“That’s just how it works, I just did it,” Teichman said.

His encounter with the suspect led police to the arrest.

“I’m more proud of everything after [the chase], giving a description and picking him out of a lineup,” Teichman said.

Devon O’Connor, owner of Dabby’s and president of the civic group Welcome to Whitestone, said he wanted to commend Teichman after hearing about how he prevented the rape.

“You don’t really hear about anything happening like that in Whitestone,” O’Connor said of the attempted attack. “We just wanted to say, ‘Thank you’ to Bryan and his family for what he did.”

Welcome to Whitestone also gave Teichman its Whitestone Community Excellence Award.

“With our civic group, its main goal is neighbors helping neighbors and that’s exactly what happened that day,” O’Connor said. “Bryan saved a life and we’re throwing a party for his little daughter. They’re a great family, so you try not to think about what could’ve happened that day.

“He didn’t have to get involved, but he saw somebody struggling and in trouble and he took it upon himself to do what he could,” O’Connor said.

Teichman thanked O’Connor for the gesture.

“We’re very appreciative,” he said.

Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 718-260-4573.