Beverly Parks, the mother of the man suspected of lassoing a woman around the neck with a belt, pulling her unconscious, and raping her, assisted in his arrest.
The 56-year-old told the New York Post, “I’m his mother that turned him in. I’m the one that facilitated him being arrested.” She explained, “I found out about this yesterday [Friday] morning at 5:12 am, and I’ve been trying to get my son to do the right thing ever since. And I did.”
Recalling the bizarre attack in the Bronx that was captured on camera, Beverly said she spent the entire night persuading her “sicko son” Kashaan Parks to turn himself in to the police. The distraught mother reported that Park’s wife had called on Friday morning to inform her that he had raped and choked a woman.
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In an unsettling video, a mask-clad Parks approached his victim from behind with a belt in hand at around 3 a.m., securing it around the woman’s neck and yanking her to the ground, officials said. According to authorities, he then pulled the woman between two parked cars before raping her on a Bronx street.
Authorities suspect the incident occurred as a result of an earlier conversation between both parties that night, where sex could be exchanged for money. The Daily Mail reported that the police said the victim was promised money in exchange for having sex.
But when this deal fell through, Parks lost it, the police said. He was declared a suspect nine days after the brutal incident on May 1.
Police stated they were not made aware of the issue right away because the victim did not report it, even though the security footage of the incident had gone viral on social media. The police said that they got to know of the incident after the victim was taken into custody for petty larceny. She complied and recognized Parks as the man who had attacked her.
Since learning that his father passed away in a Belizean hospital last month, Parks, an unemployed married father of one, has been battling drinking and drug problems in recent weeks, according to his mother.
Parks, his wife, and their young daughter had been residing in North Carolina, staying with his wife’s parents, but they had just returned. His mother expressed her regret for bringing him back, stating that the incident shocked her.
Beverly expressed, “He … had a one-year-old baby. It’s not like he was walking the street committing crimes and doing this. I had my son go be accountable for his actions, no matter that he was drunk, that he was on drugs, that he was grieving.”
“He did something wrong and he has to deal with it. Period,” she added.
According to police records, Parks has been arrested twice in the past, one for allegedly attacking a 46-year-old woman in the Bronx and another time for sneaking onto the back of an MTA bus without paying.
His mother, meanwhile, expressed her hope that the victim would be able to pardon her son. She stated, “I’m a woman, and I am sorry that this happened to this person. I have to open and close my eyes every day, and ask God to make sure this person is okay and for forgiveness for my son. Whatever she has to live with, I am going to have to think about that for the rest of my life.”
Parks was arrested Saturday for the May 1 attack and charged with first-degree rape, assault, strangulation, sex abuse, public lewdness and harassment, the Post reported.
