The man accused of sucker-punching women in seemingly random attacks in a span of weeks in Manhattan was arrested and faces hate crime charges, according to police.
Daquan Armstead was led out in handcuffs from the police stationhouse on Tuesday. When asked why he had allegedly attacked at least seven women since March, he said "they spit on me."
But police said that is not true. Armstead was accused of punching women in the head, face and back in different locations around the Lower East Side.
In many of the instances, Armstead would ask for money — and when the women refused, he would punch them in the head. Other instances were seemingly unprovoked, as one women as punched in the back as she left a train station.
Armstead was charged with multiple counts of hate crime assault.
The NYPD said that in 2024 alone, there had been 95 unprovoked assaults in Manhattan — 50 of which involved women.
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The arrest comes on the heels of numerous women using TikTok to share their accounts of seemingly random assaults in Manhattan. At least one arrest was made previously in connection with those attacks.
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The allegations involving Armstead do not appear to be any of the attacks seen on social media.
NYPD Chief Of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the department welcomes social media reporting, and that they "want to encourage reporting so that we can make these arrests.”
Armstead was set to face a judge Tuesday night.
NBC News' Dennis Romero and Madison Lambert contributed to this report.
