jamaica, queens
A part of the Jamaica section of the Queens borough of New York City on Oct. 18, 2012. The victim of the sexual assault left her church's prayer service and was walking to a subway station in the neighborhood when she was attacked. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A 50-year-old woman was robbed and sexually assaulted by five men after leaving a Queens church Tuesday night. To avoid being raped, she screamed: “I’m HIV-positive.”

The victim, who asked to remain anonymous, left the Celestial Church of Christ on Liberty Ave. in Jamaica, Queens after a Tuesday night prayer service. She began her walk to the subway where she was planning on taking a train to her East Flatbush, Brooklyn home. While walking down 150th St., two men approached her with a gun. Three other men joined them, however, it is unclear if those men knew the original two, according to the New York Post Wednesday. They dragged her behind a garbage truck where she was forced to perform oral sex on three of the five men at around 11:00 p.m.

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“They said, ‘If you don’t do that, I’ll shoot you,’” she said to the NY Daily News. “So I did what I had to do.”

The victim, a Liberian immigrant, was robbed of $6, her cell phone and her MetroCard.

“I thought it was a joke at first, but when I turned he put the gun to my forehead and repeated himself, saying, ‘Give me all the money.’ I told him, ‘I have no money,’ and he said, ‘Give me your wallet,’” she told the NY Daily News. “They tell me, ‘You don’t have any money so take off your clothes! I said, ‘What? In the middle of the street?’”

The victim lied and screamed, “I’m HIV-positive!” to try and stop the assault. One of the men ran to get a condom, which police later found behind the garbage truck.

The woman ran back to the church where Pastor Kehinde Oyetunde heard her cries. He later went to the scene of the crime and saw the condom on the ground.

“She was crying and her face was full of rubbish. She had her clothes in her hands. She said that they pulled a gun on her and took her stuff, then wanted to sleep with her,” Pastor Oyetunde said. “I called 911 for police to come. She bruises on her face. It was red.”

The woman was taken to Elmhurst General Hospital and treated for her injuries.

“This is horrible. She is a very kind woman,” Pastor Oyetunde said. “They better turn themselves in. If the Lord gets them, it’ll be worse.”

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All five men are believed to be in their 20s. Police launched an investigation. They began analyzing DNA from the condom and the victim’s sweater as well as video footage that shows the potential attackers running away from the crime scene.

“I’m very worried. I don’t know if I can go back there,” the victim said in reference to the Queens church.

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