DEMETRICE REYNOLDS said she had one wish for the thug who brutally raped her 11-year-old daughter: "I want him dead."

Her wish may as well have been broadcast across Kensington.

About a dozen neighborhood residents flew into a rage yesterday afternoon when they cornered Jose Carrasquillo, who police said they had linked through physical evidence to the heinous Monday-morning rape of Reynolds' daughter.

The justice-seeking mob rained fists, feet and wooden sticks upon Carrasquillo, 26, for several minutes until police intervened at Front and Clearfield streets.

When the dust cleared, Carrasquillo, whose last known address was Orkney Street near York, was in critical condition at a local hospital, and police officials were thanking the locals for helping them catch a man they had pursued feverishly but identified only as "a person of interest."

"Justice, community-style. It's a beautiful thing," said a resident who declined to be identified.

"The people took it [the case] to heart," said Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey. "It says a lot about the community."

Ramsey noted, however, that he didn't condone the burst of vigilante justice. "They injured him pretty badly," he said.

Carrasquillo, who was being treated at Temple University Hospital last night for an array of head wounds, has not been charged with raping Reynolds' daughter, a fifth-grader at Russell Conwell Middle School who was attacked while walking to school.

Law-enforcement sources said that detectives are still compiling evidence for their case against Carrasquillo. Charges will have to be approved by the District Attorney's Office.

Police began circulating Carrasquillo's mug shot across the city yesterday morning, but seemed to walk a fine line in how they portrayed him.

Capt. John Darby, the commander of the Special Victims Unit, said at a morning news conference that police wanted to bring Carrasquillo in only "for contempt of court, for a prior summary offense."

But he added that investigators had "linked [Carrasquillo] through physical evidence" to a rear yard on Westmoreland Street near Emerald, where the rape occurred.

"We know this male was in that yard," said Darby.

News of Carrasquillo's public beating and subsequent capture delighted Reynolds, who spent yesterday by her daughter's side at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, where the girl had undergone surgery to repair the injuries she suffered when she was repeatedly raped.

"I'm glad," Reynolds said. "I'm really happy. I mean, he deserves worse than what he did to my daughter."

She said her daughter is an "A" student who enjoys computers and reading.

Brenda Orr, the girl's grandmother, said the youngster "knows they got him, and they can tell because her whole demeanor has changed. She doesn't look scared anymore."

Darby said the girl's ordeal began about 8:20 a.m., when she took her younger sister to the Little Treasures day-care center in Kensington.

A man began walking alongside the two girls and even managed to get inside the day-care facility.