2 Women Randomly Punched In Chelsea, Union Square: Police

NEW YORK CITY — A pair of unrelated broad-daylight attacks on women took place just blocks and hours apart on Wednesday, according to police officials.

The violent attacks described by officials are strikingly similar to ones described by a series of TikTok videos made by victims, which Patch first reported on last fall, depicting women being slugged by strangers on the streets of Manhattan in unprovoked attacks.

Wednesday's attacks first began in Chelsea at around 10 a.m., police said.

A 23-year-old woman was walking near Sixth Avenue and West 15th Street when a stranger punched her in the face with a closed fist, according to officials.

The strike left her with an injury to her nose, police said, and medics brought her to Lenox Health Greenwich Village Hospital.

Officials said the man, described as having a medium complexion and wearing a white t-shirt, brown paints and a blue jacket, fled on foot south on Sixth Avenue. Police released an image of a man they say is connected to the incident.

Later that afternoon, a 33-year-old woman was walking near Union Square and East 15th Street at around 4:30 p.m. when she was punched in the face from behind by a stranger, police said.

According to a pair of photos released by police, the bearded suspect was wearing a gray shirt, black pants, gray shoes and a light blue hooded sweatshirt under a New York Yankees jersey. The image also shows him carrying a black backpack with small, white polka-dots.

The woman suffered minor injuries, but refused medical attention at the scene, officials said, and the man was last seen fleeing north on Park Avenue.

Last fall, videos from three women describing similar attacks on the streets of New York City went viral, as reported by Patch.

The trio's videos — and scores of others' in response — went viral and drew thousands of shares. They also inspired New Yorkers to share their own harrowing stories of facing violence seemingly for nothing other than being a woman in public.

"NYC is not safe for us," read the headline for one video.

19-year-old Ellio Wagner posted a TikTok video about how a man randomly attacked her.

With a black eye, Wagner recounted how she walked to work early Sept. 8 when a man bee-lined toward her near West 26th Street and Sixth Avenue. Before Wagner could process the threat, he punched her in the face and ran off, she said.

"I wanted to talk about this, because this situation really shook me up," she said. "It was very traumatic and it makes me very scared to be walking around New York alone, which is not something I've really been scared of."

Several news outlets, including the New York Times, have since reported on the incidents shared on TikTok months later.

According to recently released NYPD crime statistics, reported felony assaults were up by 5.5 percent in March this year compared to the same time last year.

For the first quarter of 2024, which covers January to March, felony assault reports were up by 3.8 percent over the same time period last year.

Anyone with information in regard to any of the incidents is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).