Punch suspect rages
Accused of bashing TikToker, he says his rights ‘violated’
Skiboky Stora, the political gadfly arrested for assaulting a TikTok influencer, appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court Thursday and repeatedly interrupted prosecutors to go on wild rants about being wronged.
Stora, 40, who has frequently run for office, including mayor and governor, as a fringe candidate, is accused of punching TikTok influencer Halley Kate Mcgookin as she walked near W. 16th St. and Seventh Ave. in Chelsea at 10:20 a.m. Monday.
“My rights are being violated. Can I ask a question?” Stora said the moment he faced Judge Pamela Goldsmith. “I just want to speak. I have a right to ask the judge a question. Do I have that right?”
“Now they bring me here and say they have video footage of me punching somebody that I never met and have never seen,” he added. “That’s denying me due process, and the same officer is a white supremacist member who has arrested me.”
Assistant District Attorney Liliana Shelanski shared statements Stora allegedly made to cops after being arrested.
“She’s a ghost, who is my accuser? You are the one who did it, I am looking at your hand,” Shelanski told police, according to prosecutors.
Stora was arrested for the assault on Mcgookin Wednesday by the warrant squad while he was appearing in court on prior open cases.
Stora allegedly struck a man in the neck and shoulder on the corner of W. 17th St. and Eighth Ave. on Sept. 20. Then on Oct. 26 he assaulted a woman on W. 17th St., hitting her on the shoulder with his elbow, authorities charge.
On Nov. 18 at E. 15th St. and Fifth Ave., Stora was tearing down posters of kidnapped Israeli hostages when a woman photographed him.
“The individual began shouting at her and chasing her down the street,” the criminal complaint states. “The individual followed her approximately 1.5 blocks.”
The woman entered an apartment building to escape Stora but he allegedly followed her in, shouting “Die, Jew, die.”
On Wednesday night, the NYPD called attention to Stora’s record, branding him a “criminal recidivist.”
“Your NYPD detectives were able to identify the man after he was previously arrested for similar attacks, only to be released back on our streets,” the NYPD posted on X.
Shelanski requested bail “because the defendant cannot refrain from attacking strangers while he is released in public.”
“Mr. Stora has never failed to make a court appearance,” countered defense lawyer Jeffrey Linehan. “Not only has he grown up here, his entire family resides in the city. Mr. Stora is a political figure, he ran for several offices just last year.
“He has been targeted over the course of the last year by the arresting officer detective in a series of incidents that he describes to me as racially motivated,” added Linehan.
Shelanski responded that since Stora has been arrested multiple times within the same neighborhood, the same detective has been assigned to two of his cases.
Stora was ordered held on $10,000 bail.
Police recovered surveillance footage of the attack on Mcgookin, according to prosecutors and a criminal complaint, and Stora identified himself in a still image, telling cops “Yeah, that’s me walking my dog.”
Mcgookin posted a TikTok video right after the assault, filming herself walking down a street in distress with a lump on the left side of her forehead.
“I was literally just walking and a man came up and punched me in the face,” said the influencer, seemingly in shock. “Oh my God, it hurts so bad.”
In what she said would be her last video about the assault, Mcgookin posted a TikTok on Wednesday showing a photo of Stora.
“The man who assaulted me has been arrested,” said the influencer. “This is him.”
The attack on the influencer is one of many random assaults female TikTok users in New York say they’ve experienced in the past few weeks.
“Please make sure if this happens to you, report it to the police and try to remember as much detail as you possibly can,” said Mcgookin.
On Tuesday, another woman posted a video to TikTok after being assaulted, showing a bruise under her left eye.
The woman, Mikayla Toninato, posted a video Thursday afternoon saying her assailant had been arrested.
“I just got a call from my detective who has been working this case, he was going to different buildings in the area to get more surveillance footage and then literally saw the man walking around the street and just arrested him,” said Toninato.
Although Stora was in custody when Toninato’s attacker was arrested, police are looking at several other unsolved assaults to see if Stora is responsible for those.
With Elizabeth Keogh and Rocco Parascandola