Police arrested several teenage girls Friday in connection with 39 attacks in which women on Manhattan's Upper West Side were jabbed with pins.
Sgt. Ed Burns, a police spokesman, said the suspects were all under 16 years old and their identities would not be revealed because of their ages. He would not immediately say how many were in custody.Police believe the attacks were racially motivated. The last occurred on or prior to Oct. 27, the day the first television reports about the incidents aired.
In most of the attacks, as many as eight black teenagers, mostly girls, approached a white woman from behind and jabbed her once. In some instances, the attackers giggled or laughed loudly at their victims.
Some victims had voiced fears that they might have been jabbed with an AIDS-infected hypodermic needle.
Police, however, have determined the weapon used was a common pin, Burns said.