Yet another woman in New York City has reported being randomly attacked on the street, following a trend line of seemingly isolated incidents of violence in the Big Apple.
A police investigation is underway after the 23-year-old woman reported being punched in the face as she walked past a McDonald’s on 6th Avenue in Chelsea at around 10am on March 20.
She was inspected by medical professionals for a nose injury and filed a report with the police on the same day.
The suspect, a man in dark pants, a light t-shirt, and what looks like a light blue overcoat or unbuttoned dress shirt, was caught on surveillance camera jogging away after the attack.
This week, police released the surveillance footage showing the suspect, for whom they are still searching.
The latest incident of violence comes as several women have reported random acts of violence against them while out in NYC.
Half-a-dozen have posted about their experiences on TikTok, though the woman in Chelsea has not.
This week, police released the surveillance footage showing the suspect, for whom they are still searching
Last week, two suspects were arrested for separate attacks after a small handful of women came forward about their violent interactions with the men of the New York City streets.
TikTok influencer Halley McGookin, who goes online by ‘Halley Kate,’ posted a tearful video recounting the attack she suffered on March 25, when a random man punched her on the sidewalk near West 16th street and 7th Avenue.
Millions of people saw and responded to McGookin’s posts about the attack, which prompted the police to eventually arrest Skiboy Stora, 40, who was being held on $10,000 bail ahead of his arraignment last week.
When the suspect was shown surveillance footage, he said: ‘Yeah that’s me walking my dog.’
Stora himself has several TikTok accounts on which he shows himself aggressively approaching strangers, many of whom are women, some of whom are police.
Stora was arrested last Wednesday, his third apprehension in six months, though he is somehow allowed to continue roaming the streets.
An up close shot of the suspect who punched the 23-year-old in Chelsea. Police have yet to apprehend him, but he is described as having a medium build and medium complexion
The New York Police Department said Stora was arrested last Wednesday and charged with assault, making it his third arrest in the past six months
Mallikah Miah, 30, was also arrested last week in Greenwich Village and charged with assault.
He has been accused of punching 27-year-old Mikayla Toninato in the face as she exited a building on Fifth Avenue at around 2pm last Monday.
In a video posted to her TikTok account, Toninato said that a man appeared ‘out of nowhere’ and ‘hit me in the face.’
Miah’s been charged with misdemeanor assault, which is not bail eligible in New York City. So he was released. He does not have a record linking him to any other assaults.
A large handful of other women have also come forward recently to discuss their NYC attack stories.
Karina Dunford, a model, said she was punched in broad daylight in Chelsea last Tuesday.
‘My head continued to hurt until after the police arrived, but the emotional toll was honestly pretty terrifying, I was just shaking and not a lot jars me,’ she said.
The assault occurred at about 12.45pm in front of 717 Avenue of the Americas.
The unidentified male approached the 24-year-old and punched her in the head with a closed fist before fleeing.
The victim refused medical attention.
The suspect, who police have not apprehended, is described as a male with dark skin, approximately 35-years-old, 5 ‘10” inches tall, 180 pounds and a medium build. He was last seen wearing a black jacket, black hooded sweatshirt, light jeans and white and orange sneakers.
Bethenny Frankel says she was randomly punched in New York City a couple of months ago; The reality star, 53, made the confession in the comments section of a Tik Toker who said she was randomly punched in New York City
According to Page Six, more than 25 women have revealed on TikTok they were randomly attacked in New York City in the past few months.
Former Real Housewife of NY and current entrepreneur and online presence Bethenny Frankel wrote in the comments section of Mikayla Toninato’s Tik Tok video that she too had been randomly assaulted in NYC in recent months.
‘This is insane bc this happened to me a few months ago but I was embarrassed to say. I was on the UWS [Upper West Side]. I was taking video of a bakery,’ she wrote in the comments section via Page Six, which she has since deleted.
The growing number of random punching attacks in New York City may be part of a disturbing trend called the knockout game – in which strangers punch random strangers in New York City with the intent of ‘punching them unconscious.’
The violent game began in 1992 after Yngv Raustein, an MIT grad student, was attacked by a group of local teenagers in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Yngve was attacked and punched by the teenagers, who then stabbed him; he succumbed to his injuries.
The criminal teens told prosecutors at the time that their goal was to to ‘floor a stranger’ with just one punch.