This night was the same as the rest, I found myself scrolling down my TikTok For-You page as a reward for completing my homework, but tonight I wasn’t seeing viral dances, or Young Sheldon Snippets, but rather, concerning videos of a woman getting punched, which in turn activated my detective mode.
The first video that I saw was of one of my favorite TikTokkers, Halley Kate, crying, holding frozen peas to her head as she attempted to explain the traumatic story, though hard to understand because of the shakiness in her voice. Kate notes in her video, “Oh my God, it was so bad, I can’t even talk.” The main point of the video though is to tell the story of how she was walking on the street, with her head in her phone, as a man came out of nowhere and punched her so brutally she fell unconscious. While she didn’t mention where she was when this attack occurred, The New York Post claims, “Her video recounting the ordeal appeared to be shot on 7th Ave. between West 15th and 16th St. in Chelsea.”
Even though this story was odd, considering the sheer randomness of the violent attack, I thought that would be the only story I saw with the same punchline. Boy was I wrong.
The video right underneath hers was from another well-known New York TikTok, Olivia Brand who shared an eerily similar story. In her video, captioned, “I <3 nyc,” Brand was walking with haste down the straight talking to her fans mentioning, “I literally got punched in the head on the sidewalk. He goes, ‘Sorry,’ and then punches me — in the head,” Brand said, while walking down a street just after the event. “Holy crap, what the hell just happened? Oh my God.”
Both of the young women found themselves strolling down NY’s streets, minding their own business on their phones, when they were rudely interrupted by a swift punch to the forehead that nearly knocked each of them out. Because of the rise in comments from young girls who rightfully wanted to put this man behind bars, The New York Post mentioned that, “The NYPD confirmed the narratives of Kate and Brand, saying that a 23-year-old woman reported an assault at West 16th St. and 7th Ave. at 10:20 a.m. Monday, as with Kate’s report. She was treated at a medical facility for injuries to the left side of her face, cops said.”
In addition to these two stories, student Mikayla Toninato recorded a video saying, “I was literally like leaving class, I turned the corner and I was looking down and I was looking at my phone, and like texting, and then, out of nowhere, this man just came up and hit me in the face.” This story matches several others, and on top of that, Halley Kate, the first victim, commented, “I quite literally feel your pain, this was so insane.”
While these stories are being used for many people’s entertainment, there are real people affected. The police have since found the man guilty of all of these heinous crimes. His name is Skiboky Stora, a 40-year-old man. According to ABC7NY, Stora has been charged with the attacks and is currently being held on a $10,000 bail.
