Skiboky Stora arrested punching Halley Kate Mcgookin NYC TikToker as police investigate attacks on other female social media influencers.
A perennial political hopeful and the ancestor of famed political activist, Marcus Garvey has been arrested for punching a NYC TikToker earlier this week. The man’s arrest comes amid high profile assaults involving other female social media influencers.
Skiboky Stora, 40, of East New York and a recent candidate for NYC mayor, was charged with assault in connection to the random attack on on NYC TikTok creator Halley Kate Mcgookin while she was walking the streets of Chelsea, NYC on Monday.
In a video that has now amassed over 44 million views, the 23-year-old TikTok star recorded herself moments after being sucker-punched in the face.
@halleykate♬ original sound – halley
Rapper, promising politician, misogynist?
‘I was literally just walking and a man came up and punched me in the face,’ a visibly distressed Kate says in the video (see above). ‘Oh my god, it hurts so bad, I can’t even talk.’
In multiple follow up videos, Kate showed her followers markings on the left side of he forehead following the unprovoked attack.
According to court records, Stora was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday morning for a previous arrest in September 2023. He performs as a rapper under the moniker Designer Attitude and is a regular hopeful for public office.
Along with running for NYC mayor, Stora has also run for governor, and City Council over the past three years according to the dailymail.
But there was more to come.
— Designer attitude (@Designerattitu1) February 26, 2019
Were the attacks related?
Kate’s video prompted a number of other women to come forward about their own experienced being assaulted, specifically being punched in the face by male strangers.
Police have not confirmed whether Stora is a suspect in the other incidents.
Despite suspicion that Stora might also be behind the attack on other social media influencers, Mcgookin stated she did not necessarily think Stora was responsible the spade of assaults against other female TikTokers in NYC.
‘From listening to a lot of those girl’s videos it didn’t really sound like it was the same person. I think it might just be a somewhat common thing that happens in big cities,’ she said.
@halleykate♬ original sound – halley
‘If you can make it in NYC, you can make it no where else?’
‘I don’t want it to seem like 13 girls got punched in the face yesterday, and if you come to New York City, you’re for sure going to get punched in the face.’
Mcgookin went on to state that she believed her attack was an isolated incident and that TikTok’s algorithm had helped the other women’s accounts to go viral.
Addressing Monday’s assault, Mcgookin insisted she was not going to let the incident define her nor stop her from living her life.
‘I have lived here for six years and I haven’t had anything even remotely similar to what happened to me yesterday,’ she said.
‘While its obviously really upsetting and disgusting that women have to deal with shit like this, I personally am not gonna revolve my life around that one incident and be afraid to walk around the streets, go to restaurants – live my life.
‘I do think this serves as a good wake up call to be a little bit more aware of my surroundings, and that’s not just in New York City, literally anywhere in the world.’
Systemic racism pic.twitter.com/UV0RNA6bwU
— Designer attitude (@Designerattitu1) May 12, 2022
Another multi-faceted NYC character
Stora, who describes himself as the great-great-grandson of Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican political activist, notched 264 votes in NYC’s November, 2021 election, falling more than 750,000 votes shy of Democrat Eric Adams.
As recently as December, Stora lost to Democrat Yusef Salaam in the City Council election for District 9 last year. He ran as a Freedom Party candidate but did not get a spot on the ballot.
The would be political hopeful was either withdrawn or disqualified as the Republican candidate for governor in 2022 according to Ballotpedia.
Overall crime in New York has fallen: Police reported a decrease in shootings, murders and other crimes, like grand larceny, as opposed to February of last year. But the attacks come amid a statistical rise in misdemeanor assault. According to crime statistics for this past week, misdemeanor assault is up 10.3% from this time last year, and it has gone up 15.7% in the past two years.
The NYPD says an investigation into alleged attacks on other female TikTok influencers was ongoing.
