Topline
New York City police arrested a 40-year-old man for allegedly punching influencer Halley Kate Mcgookin in the face as she walked along Seventh Avenue on Monday, prompting more than a dozen other women to take to TikTok and share stories of similar seemingly random assaults, including “Real Housewives” star Bethenny Frankel.
Key Facts
In a now-viral video posted to TikTok on Monday, Mcgookin showed a large bump on her forehead and explained she was walking down the street “when a man came up and punched me in the face… it hurt so bad. Literally I fell to the ground and now this giant goose egg is forming,” she said.
Mcgookin reported the incident to police, who confirmed an assault took place at about 10:20 a.m. Monday in which the victim fell to the ground and was later treated at a local medical facility for injuries to the left side of her face.
A Brooklyn resident named Skiboky Stora was arrested in connection with the attack Wednesday and charged with assault, according to the NYPD public information office, and the investigation remains ongoing.
A spokesperson for NYPD did not respond to Forbes’ request for additional information, like how the alleged assailant was caught or if they think he could be responsible for the other attacks.
Key Background
Mcgookin’s video, which has now been viewed more than 41.2 million times, spurred more than a dozen other women to take to TikTok and Instagram explaining the same thing had happened to them. In a follow-up video, Mcgookin went on to explain she was looking at her phone during the attack, a detail repeated in the stories of other victims. One such video, by TikTok user Mikayla Toninato, received a since-deleted comment from original “Real Housewives of New York City” cast member Bethenny Frankel, who reportedly wrote “This is insane bc this happened to me a few months ago but I was embarrassed to say… Insane. I was taking video of a bakery.” The comment is no longer on the video and representatives for Frankel did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment Wednesday. Other victims of attacks have reported they were looking at their cell phones, texting or using a GPS when they were attacked. Comedian Sarah Suzuki Harvard said she was “punched in the back of my skull from a random man on the street.” It isn’t clear how many of the women reported their assaults to police. Harvard said she had not done so because she assumed her assault was an isolated incident, but would be making a report after hearing other women’s stories.
Crucial Quote
“A random man came up and punched me in the head,” TikTok user @malous228 said in a video. “It was definitely a traumatic experience and it’s something that is going to stick with me for the rest of my life now.”
Tangent
The assaults are reminiscent of the “knockout game,” a behavior in which participants try to knock a victim unconscious with a single punch. The trend can be traced back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to NPR, and has been renamed through the years as it ebbs and flows in popularity. In 2013, a spate of reports nationwide blamed the knockout game for attacks that turned fatal in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. At the time, the New York Times reported some police officials believed the idea of a game being at play in such assaults was an urban myth.
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