Cultist Suspected In Random Assaults On NYC Women

CBS News reports:

Police have arrested a man they say randomly punched a woman in the face in Chelsea. Halley Kate’s video about the attack went viral on TikTok, garnering tens of millions of views. Skiboky Stora, 40, was arrested Wednesday.

Police say Stora randomly attacked Kate while she was walking on Seventh Avenue near 17th Street Monday. He faces misdemeanor assault and harassment charges. According to court documents, the assault was captured on surveillance video.

Stora has a history of similar assaults, police said. He had been arrested in December following two other alleged assaults.

The New York Post reports:

The man who allegedly sucker-punched a TikTok influencer in New York City is a perennial down-ballot political candidate who ran for mayor, governor and City Council in the past three years.

During a mayoral debate for fringe candidates hosted by Gotham Gazette in 2021, Stora, running under the Out Lawbreaker Party ticket, recounted how he had been shot while living in a homeless shelter in 2005.

Multiple women have taken to TikTok in recent days to claim they were randomly punched by a stranger in the city. The suspect extolled the virtues of black men in front of a Trump banner on Instagram earlier this month.

NBC News reports:

Several women have come forward on social media sharing incidents in which they said they were punched by men while they walking the streets of downtown Manhattan in broad daylight in the last month.

Multiple videos — which were uploaded to TikTok — have picked up traction in the last week, with women online sharing their safety concerns in comments and reply videos.

One woman said she was assaulted walking home from class. Another said she was assaulted on her way to work. A third woman said she was attacked walking her dog. At least two of the women described suspects with similar characteristics.

While it’s not clear that Stora is behind all of the assaults, common to the victims’ stories is that they were looking at their phones when sucker-punched.