Punch suspect: ‘Have to check women sometimes’

A Bronx man charged with eight random punching attacks on women since February ranted to cops that he sometimes had to “check” women in order to keep them in line, officials say.

“It’s different with men,” Daquan Armstead, 31, told a detective after he was arrested and charged with assaulting random women in Manhattan, a prosecutor said at the suspect’s Wednesday arraignment.

“They don’t test you like women do. You have to check women sometimes.”

Officials said Armstead made misogynistic comments after cops arrested him and charged him with assaults in Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, Tribeca and the Bowery.

Some of the attacks were the subject of TikTok videos shot by women who had been targeted. The viral clips set New Yorkers on edge and drew national attention.

Armstead was released without bail after he assaulted a woman in 2021 and was set loose again in February after the first incident in the latest string of violence, prosecutors said.

The man was arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan Criminal Court and charged with several counts of assault and assault as a hate crime.

“He is currently out on two bench warrants,” said Judge Michael Ryan. “Based on the information presented to me, he does pose a risk of flight to avoid prosecution and bail is required to ensure his return to court.”

A warrant was already out for Armstead’s arrest after he failed to return to court following an assault on a woman in 2021, for which he was given a desk appearance ticket.

But he didn’t show up in court again until February, when he was arrested for attacking another woman. He was put on supervised release and failed to show up in court again until after he was arrested and charged with seven more attacks.

Ryan set bail this time at $20,000. Armstead is due back in court Friday. He has been given a psychiatric evaluation and medical attention, officials said.

Armstead’s attorney Katherine Bajuk said incarceration would do Armstead more harm than good.

“Your Honor, when someone with a mental health concern is incarcerated, nothing good happens for anyone,” she said. “The person becomes destabilized, the person becomes less connected with certain things that they need and the outcome for everyone and everything is worse.”

The women Armstead attacked range in age from 24 to 44, cops said.

Cops said his victims included a 27-year-old New York University administrator who was punched in the head as she walked along Washington Square North near Fifth Ave. in Greenwich Village the morning of April 17.