The police reported that A man accused of attacking random women in New York City was arrested Tuesday.
Daquan Armstead, 31, of the East Bronx, was arrested on suspicion of hate-motivated assaults against seven women from late March to mid-April in Lower Manhattan, police said.
The authorities allege that He hit the women, sometimes in the face, head or back.
When asked about the accusations as he was led out of the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force office, Armstead responded: “They spit on me.” However, the police refuted the suspect’s claim.
Armstead was arrested on suspicion of hate crime/assault; suspicion of attempted hate crime; and suspicion of aggravated harassmentaccording to the NYPD’s Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.
Police told NBC New York that there have been 95 unprovoked assaults in Manhattan so far this year, 50 of them involving victims who are women.
At least one arrest was previously made in connection with a series of attacks earlier this spring that drew attention after some of the women told their stories on TikTok.
The allegations involving Armstead do not appear to be any of the attacks seen on social media.
When did the attacks in New York occur?
Police indicated that around 8 p.m. on March 24, they received a report of a 30-year-old woman who had been punched in the face on the Lower East Side. It was a blow so strong that it made her dizzy, but she refused medical attention.
The next day, shortly after 10 a.m., officers responded a few blocks northwest based on a report that a 36-year-old woman had been hit in the back, the NYPD said. She also refused medical treatment.
Shortly after 8 a.m. on April 2, officers responded to an incident in which “an unknown individual” struck a 38-year-old woman in the back of the head in Greenwich Village.
While around 12:25 p.m. on April 5, officers responded to the Lower East Side, where it was reported that someone hit a 25-year-old woman on the right side of her face.
A few minutes later and a few blocks away, officers responded to the Lower East Side after a report that someone hit a 44-year-old woman on the right side of her face.
Around 9:45 a.m. on April 8, police responded to a report of a 24-year-old woman hit in the back of the head in the Lower East Side. She refused medical attention, police said.
At 10:30 a.m. on April 17, police responded to a report of a 27-year-old woman struck in the head by an “unknown individual” in Lower Manhattan.
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