College Student Helps Capture Sexual-Abuse Suspect

Dec. 19, 2005 — -- Peter Braunstein eluded police for 45 days after allegedly sexually assaulting a woman on Halloween in New York City. On Friday a fast-thinking college student and a campus police officer helped end Braunstein's flight.

"I remembered his [Braunstein's] long eyelashes and a deep, empty look in his eyes -- very unrepentant," Annette Brown, a student at the University of Memphis, told "Good Morning America."

Brown first saw Braunstein's image on "America's Most Wanted," and when she saw him walking toward her on a Memphis street on Friday, she alerted campus police. When campus police Officer Jay Johnson confronted Braunstein, Johnson said that Braunstein pulled a knife and repeatedly stabbed himself in the neck.

"He began to stab himself, and I knew I had to stop him," Johnson said. "I sprayed him in the face with pepper spray and he didn't even show any pain from being stabbed. His face was just blank."

Braunstein's estranged father says his son has mental problems.

"He's got mental trouble so you cannot treat him as a rational person," Alberto Braunstein said.

New York City police say Braunstein, 41, impersonated a firefighter on Halloween to gain access to a woman's apartment in Manhattan. Once inside, he drugged and bound her, then allegedly sexually abused her for 13 hours, police say.

Braunstein, a writer, once worked with the alleged victim at a fashion publication. The New York Post reported that Braunstein was devoted to the TV drama "Nip/Tuck" and its character "the Carver." Police believe he may have kept trophies of his alleged assault, including videotapes and a diary.

After the attack, Braunstein fled New York, and was spotted in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, before he was captured in Memphis, Tenn.

"The whole thing is surreal," Johnson said. "I can't believe it myself."

Braunstein is scheduled to be arraigned today in Memphis, and then faces extradition to New York.