Victims of violent random sucker punching assaults in the city say they are being left gobsmacked a second time by the NYPD’s response to them.
Four people who suffered random attacks told The Post they didn’t feel police took their cases seriously — even though two resulted in arrests.
Last Wednesday author and influencer, Kindra Hall, 44, got punched in the head by a person she did not know on the Upper East Side.
She managed to get iPhone footage of the violent brute walking away and called cops, but maintained it took officers took more than 30 minutes to arrive. She also claimed they appeared disinterested when they got to her.
Author and influncer Kindra Hall, who was punched in the head by a stranger on the Upper East Side. @kindrahall/Instagram
Hall captured video of the man who hit her, later identified by police as Yao Reed, and was able to lead officers to him based on threats he had shouted at her. @kindrahall/Instagram
Officers arresting Reed over his actions, as captured by Hall. @kindrahall/Instagram“Even after showing the video with the guy shouting threats, [NYPD] acted like it wasn’t a big deal. I remember saying, ‘So since I’m not bleeding, a punch to the head is ok?!’” she wrote on Instagram.
Officers were thankfully able to track down and arrest the man who allegedly punched her, later IDed by police as 43-year-old Yao Reed. Police told The Post officers were under duress at the time and responding to multiple calls, including shots fired.
Others who’ve endured irrational attacks have not fared so well in terms of resolution.
Sarah Harvard, a 31-year-old stand-up comic and writer, was walking on Delancey Street in her Lower East Side neighborhood. Then, “All of a sudden, I felt a huge whack to the back of my skull. Obviously, it hurt. My brain felt rattled.”
The 2024 incident happened in front of Mt. Sinai Hospital and, after filing a police report, Harvard asked the responding detective to obtain footage of the assault.
“He said, ‘Well, it’s going to be a huge process; we’ll have to get a warrant,’” Harvard recalled to The Post. “Then they were hard to get a hold of. A couple weeks later, or a month later, I got a call from the District Attorney’s office. They said they caught the guy and wanted me to testify.”
Sarah Harvard, 31, claims she was randomly attacked on March 19 2024 on Delancey Street in Manhattan. She says the police did little to find the man who attacked her. Sarah Suzuki Harvard/Facebook
Harvard said she told officers where they could get security camera footage of the assailant, but detectives never called her back with any progress on her case. NewsNationPlus, she added, “They got the footage from McDonald’s [the fast-food joint was near the incident] and saw the guy creeping up behind me.”
But a picture of the suspect didn’t match. “He was bald,” Harvard said. “The guy who hit me had hair.” Because she was unconvinced she “asked the assistant DA to send me the footage. He never got back to me and never asked me to testify.”
Looking back, Harvard said, “I’m completely frustrated. I feel like their priorities are out of order.”
Dr. Jason Koutcher, 72 at the time of his 2022 attack, learned the hard way that law enforcement can work in uneven ways, depending on who you are and who you know.
He was walking on Third Avenue, between East 81st and East 82nd Streets, when a stranger came in the opposite direction and hit him for no apparent reason.
Dr. Jason Koutcher said he went to police four times and they didn’t act upon finding the man who punched him and broke his sternum, even though he was caught on camera. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
The assailant was eventually prosecuted after they assaulted another man in his 70s, but Koutcher did not remember his name or what he was sentenced to.
“He didn’t say a word to me,” Koutcher told The Post at the time of the incident. “He walked just a step past me, and he gave me a huge punch. He looked at me as I was down.”
Speaking with The Post last week, Koutcher added, “He didn’t take my phone. He didn’t take my money. He just walked away. “
The blow was so brutal, Koutcher – who is now retired but “ran the MRI Unit and was also a doctor” at Memorial Sloan Kettering – wound up with a broken sternum.
Additional pain came, initially at least, when he sought justice. “Four times I went to the police and they had zero interest in me; the fourth time, a cop said something along the lines of, ‘If you don’t get out of here, you’re going to be in trouble,’ so I left,” he said.
“I was pretty frustrated. My daughter was a young lawyer at the time. I felt the need to set a good example. And nobody cared. So, I gave up.”
However, shortly after, “One of my friends who has contacts with [former mayor Mike] Bloomberg told [a high ranking NYPD officer]. He was very good. He knew exactly what I was talking about. And, to make a long story short, they caught him.”
Ellio Wagner said she was assaulted at 5:30 a.m. while she was on her way to work at a coffee shop. Courtesy of Ellio WagnerThe assailant was eventually arrested after he had assaulted another person, also a man in his 70s, and eventually faced a grand jury, at which Koutcher testified.
“The lawyer told me that he’s likely to get a year in jail,” said Koutcher, although he added he couldn’t remember the perpetrator’s name. “I don’t know how much time he served,” he added.
Ellio Wagner, a 20-year-old actress and singer, had no such closure. Her ordeal began at 5:30 in the morning in September 2023.
“I was on my way to work at a coffee shop,” Wagner, who was in Chelsea at the time, told The Post. “This guy approached like he was going to pass me. He was walking normally. Then he charged me, hit me [resulting in a black eye] and ran off.”
Nothing happened for months and then in a follow up call, when Wagner asked what was happening with her case, she was curtly told “they couldn’t talk about it.”
Surprised by the response, Wagner said, “I think the NYPD doesn’t care. Now I don’t feel safe when I’m alone and it’s not during the day.
“After this incident, another guy walked past me and smacked my ass. My friends and I get catcalled all the time. All of this makes me angry, and I don’t get angry easily.”
Halley Mcgookin said police were able to catch the person who assaulted her right away after she gave them a description of her random attacker. Halley Kate Mcgookin/ TikTokThe NYPD did not return a request for comment from The Post.
As is the case with Wagner, Harvard’s view of law enforcement has been rattled.
“Right now,” she said, “I am more upset with the institutions that are supposed to protect us than I am with the guy who hit me. These [law enforcement] institutions have billions of dollars. They’re supposed to support and protect me. But I don’t see that happening.”
Another victim of a random assault had a much more positive report of the NYPD’s handling of it.
Influencer Halley Kate Mcgookin described how she had been hit in Chelsea in March 2024, but the police swiftly tracked the assailant down.
“[The NYPD] were very on it and helpful, and obviously they arrested him very quickly, so I do highly encourage any of the girls who have been assaulted to make sure if this happens to you: report it to the police and try to remember as much detail as you possibly can,” Mcgookin said in a TikTok.
