Senate Aide Chases Off Attacker in Albany

By Rick Karlin

May 28, 2011

ALBANY -- A well-known state senate aide found himself in an unusual role early Saturday morning after he stopped a rape in progress that was proceeding outside his Center Square home.

"I woke up, the girl was screaming 'don't hurt me, don't kill me,' " Richard Azzopardi said of the commotion that erupted at about 2:45 a.m.

He grabbed a kitchen knife and ran outside his home on Lancaster Street, at which point a man who had grabbed a young woman fled, said Azzopardi, who by day works as a press spokesman for Democratic Sen. Jeff Klein of the Bronx.

Azzopardi then brought the woman into his house and called police. The woman said she had gotten separated from a friend downtown and was making her way back to her car.

Police said the man approached her during the walk and began talking to her before he punched her in the head, pushed her to the ground and sexually assaulted her. He took off with the woman's purse.

Police described the assailant as a black male of medium height with dreadlocks.