Women Punched In NYC TikToks

Submission 9,530

Overview

Women Punched In NYC TikToks, also known as the NYC Woman Puncher, refers to a series of TikTok videos posted by women in March 2024 who were punched on the streets of New York City by male strangers, mostly when they were distracted such as when looking at their phones. The female victims posted numerous videos recounting their stories seemingly moments after their incidents occurred. The TikTokers included @halleykate, @mikaylatoninato, @olivia.brand and @jill_burke, all of whom described similar events in Manhattan. Discourse about the unknown assailants punching women in New York spread across social media, evident in viral posts on Twitter / X.

Background

On February 8th, 2024, TikToker^[1] @jill_burke posted a video in which she recounted an incident that occurred to her in New York City when an unknown man struck her in the face with a bag filled with heavy objects, notably displaying a black eye. Her video received roughly 540,400 plays and 56,600 likes in a month (shown below, left).

A few weeks later, on March 17th, 2024, TikToker^[2] @olivia.brand posted a video about a similar experience, stating that she was punched in the face by an unknown man in New York City. Her video received over 3.1 million plays and 298,700 likes in nine days (shown below, right).

In the following week, more women posted videos about similar incidents in New York, such as TikToker^[3] @halleykate on March 25th, who was filming herself right after being punched by an unknown man, receiving over 25.8 million plays and 2.9 million likes in a day (shown below, left).

Hours later on March 25th, 2024, TikToker^[4] @mikaylatoninato tagged @halleykate and told her own story about an unknown man punching her in the face in New York, earning over 5.6 million plays and 728,900 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Online Reactions

The four aforementioned videos were compiled into one post by X^[5] user @ymmayer on March 26th, 2024. She speculated that, "I don’t know if it’s all the same guy some of the stories seem slightly different but some of them seem similar," receiving over 28,000 likes in less than a day (shown below).

On March 25th, 2024, TikToker^[6] @paretay posted a video that added to the stories, describing an incident that occurred in 2023 when a man punched her in the face in Union Square when she was on her phone. Her video gained over 865,600 plays and 99,600 likes in a day (shown below).

On March 26th, 2024, X^[7] user @eiffeltyler tweeted a Google Maps screenshot, highlighting the area in downtown Manhattan where the incidents from the women took place, including the bottom of Union Square, Washington Square Park and the New York University (NYU) campus. Her tweet received over 310 likes in a few hours (shown below).

Also, in the replies, some women on X^[8] alleged their own stories about being punched in NYC, like one woman who said her incident occurred "seven or eight years ago."

Developments

@halleykate's Update Video

Later on March 25th, 2024 (after the upload of her original TikTok^[3]), TikToker^[9] @halleykate posted a follow-up video that further outlined her incident. She claimed that she was walking on the sidewalk and looking down at her phone, sending an email, when an unknown, male assailant either elbowed her or punched her in the face. She said she fell down and passed out. When she came to, the man was screaming at her, so she ran away. Her update video gained over 7.1 million plays and 522,000 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Skiboky Stora's Arrest

On March 27th, 2024, Skiboky Stora, a TikTok influencer and the great-great-grandson of Marcus Garvey, was arrested for the assault of Halley Kate Mcgookin (aka TikToker @halleykate). The New York Police Department did not indicate if Stora was responsible for the other attacks.^[10]