“I was looking at my phone and texting and then out of nowhere this man just came up and hit me in the face,” one woman said in a video posted to TikTok.
A woman took to TikTok to share her experience of a time when she says she was walking down a New York City street and a man punched her in the face, causing her to lose consciousness. After she posted the video, several other women posted saying this had also happened to them in Manhattan.
“I was looking at my phone and texting and then out of nowhere this man just came up and hit me in the face,” one woman said in a video. “I literally just got punched by some man on the sidewalk. He goes, ‘Sorry,’ and then punches me in the head,” said another woman.
The women say the assaults happened in Manhattan. They say the attacks happened as they were walking alone in broad daylight. Some of them bear physical injuries from the attacks.
One victim appeared to have a bruise under her eye. Another young woman has a lump, she says, the size of a goose egg.
One young woman, Jill Burke, who still nursing a black eye, gave a slightly different account.
“As I was crossing the street, a man looked at me and within a split second pointed two fingers at me in a gun symbol and then slammed a bag, a plastic bag, full of God knows what, down on my face from about a foot away,” Burke said.
Burke Spoke with Inside Edition.
“It’s good to see that these platforms are making people have more awareness about it but it’s obviously so sad for me to see that this is continuing to happen and happening to more women,” Burke says.
Security consultant Bill Stanton says he wants women to "be prepared, not scared."
“Be vigilant, keep their head on a swivel, and keep those earbud Q-tips out of their ears and their face out of their no-so-smartphone,” Stanton says.
