Crime & Safety
Hinge Match Ties Up Woman, Threatens To Gut Her With Knife: Queens DA
Herman Brightman, 30, is suspected of being a serial attacker who met at least four victims on Hinge, according to prosecutors and a report.
QUEENS, NY — A suspected serial attacker tied up and threatened to gut a Queens woman he met through the popular dating app Hinge, according to prosecutors and a report.
Herman Brightman, 30, of Long Island, was arraigned Tuesday on kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment charges.
He's accused of terrorizing his 28-year-old girlfriend during an Aug. 7 argument inside her home, said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
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"Wielding a knife, he threatened to gut her; he threatened to kill her," Katz said in a statement. "She is fortunate to have escaped with her life."
And the woman may not be Brightman's only victim, Katz hinted.
Find out what's happening in Queensfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Women who dated Brightman, who also used the alias Nazir Griffiths, and were victimized by him should contact the Queens' district attorney's office domestic violence helpline at 718-286-4410.
Brightman faces accusations from three women — two in The Bronx and one in New Jersey — who said he threatened them after they connected on Hinge, the New York Daily News reported.
Hinge is how Brightman, of Central Islip, met the Queens woman months ago, prosecutors said.
Their relationship led to a violent argument Aug. 7 inside her home in which Brightman threw her computer monitor to the floor, shattering its screen, authorities said.
Brightman then told the woman to sit on her bed while he went to the kitchen to grab a knife, which he used to chop her phone, prosecutors said.
He climbed on top of her, poked her with the knife, put his hands over her mouth and threatened to gut her, authorities said.
"He asked her which part of her body she wanted him to cut first," a Queens' district attorney's office release states.
After Brightman threatened to kill the woman, he taped her mouth shut, bound her wrists behind her back and demanded she sit in a corner, prosecutors said. The woman eventually managed to calm Brightman down and convinced him to untie her, according to the Daily News report.
Brightman is scheduled to appear back in court Nov. 28.
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