Skiboky Stora: Hate Crime Punching Attacks, Trial, and Sentence

Skiboky Stora, a 42-year-old Brooklyn man, was convicted in February 2026 and sentenced in April 2026 to three to nine years in New York state prison for a series of hate crime attacks on strangers in Manhattan between September 2023 and March 2024. A Manhattan judge found him guilty of assaulting, stalking, and harassing victims he targeted based on race, gender, and religion, including the viral sucker-punch of TikTok influencer Halley Kate McGookin. The Skiboky Stora hate crime conviction covers four separate incidents and five criminal counts.

What He Did

Prosecutors proved four attacks over roughly six months, all on Manhattan streets in daylight.

On September 20, 2023, near West 17th Street and 8th Avenue in Chelsea, Stora elbowed a 17-year-old white student in the neck and told him, “You people think you can do whatever the f— you want.” About a month later, on October 26, he elbowed a 37-year-old woman in the shoulder near the same intersection, causing bruising.¹

On November 18, 2023, near Union Square, a 28-year-old woman photographed Stora tearing down posters of Israeli hostages. He followed her and her husband into their apartment lobby, shouting “F— you white boy” and “Die, Jews, Die!”²

The final attack came on March 25, 2024, near West 16th Street and 7th Avenue. Stora punched 23-year-old TikTok influencer Halley Kate McGookin in the head, knocking her to the ground.¹ McGookin, who has more than a million followers, posted a tearful video showing a lump on her forehead and describing briefly blacking out. The video drew tens of millions of views and prompted other women to share accounts of being randomly punched on New York streets.³ Police arrested Stora two days later. When shown surveillance footage, he told detectives, “Yeah that’s me walking my dog.”⁴

Why the Charges Were Hate Crimes

Under New York Penal Law Section 485.05, an offense becomes a hate crime when the defendant intentionally selects a victim based on race, gender, religion, or other protected characteristics.⁵ Section 485.10 bumps the severity up one category, which turned Stora’s third-degree assault charges from misdemeanors into Class E felonies.⁶

The prosecution established three distinct bias motives. Stora’s statements to the white student and to the Union Square couple supported the anti-white classification. His shouts of “Die, Jews, Die!” at a Jewish couple whose only offense was photographing him destroying hostage posters established antisemitic motivation. The pattern of unprovoked physical attacks on women supported the anti-female classification.¹

Trial and Verdict

Stora represented himself at a bench trial before New York State Supreme Court Judge Josh Hanshaft. Prosecutors introduced surveillance footage, victim testimony, and videos Stora had recorded of himself shouting at and harassing white people, along with footage of him tearing down Israeli hostage posters.⁷

His defense arguments were unusual. He claimed the man in the video evidence could not be him because that person had hair while he was shaven-headed at trial, and he disputed the identity of a dog seen in the footage.⁷ In closing, he told the court, “I never did anything racist to anybody, and I never did anything discriminating against anybody, and I never tried to injure anybody.”⁸

On February 25, 2026, Judge Hanshaft found him guilty on all five counts:

Two counts of Assault in the Third Degree as a Hate Crime (Class E felony)
One count of Stalking in the Third Degree as a Hate Crime (Class E felony)
One count of Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree (Class A misdemeanor)
One count of Attempted Assault in the Third Degree as a Hate Crime (Class A misdemeanor)²

He was remanded into custody immediately after the verdict.⁹

The Sentence

On April 14, 2026, Judge Hanshaft sentenced Stora to three to nine years in state prison and issued full and final orders of protection for each victim. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg said the attacks reflected “a disturbing pattern of hate-fueled violence targeting and intimidating strangers” and that the sentence “sends a clear message that this conduct is unacceptable and carries significant consequences.”¹

Who Skiboky Stora Is

Before his arrest, Stora was a marginal figure in New York City politics. He ran for mayor in 2021 under the “Out Lawbreaker Party,” receiving 264 votes. He ran as a Republican for New York governor in 2022 but was listed as withdrawn or disqualified, and tried for a City Council seat in 2023 without making the ballot.¹⁰ He performed rap under the name “Designer Attitude” and claimed to be a great-great-grandson of Marcus Garvey, a claim The Independent reported could not be verified.¹¹

The NYPD, which identified him quickly after the McGookin attack, described him as a “criminal recidivist with an extensive criminal record” who had been arrested three times in the six months before the March 2024 assault.¹²

The Wider Wave of Punching Attacks

McGookin’s viral video sat at the front of a widely covered surge of women reporting random street punches in Manhattan in early 2024. The NYPD confirmed at least 12 incidents in the Manhattan South area and made six arrests as of early April 2024. Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the department did not believe a TikTok “challenge” was driving the attacks and attributed the spike in reports to heightened public awareness.¹³ Police also said Stora was not connected to any of the other reported attacks beyond the four incidents in his indictment.¹⁴

1
Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. D.A. Bragg Announces Sentencing of Skiboky Stora for Multiple Hate Crime Incidents
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Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. D.A. Bragg Announces Trial Conviction of Skiboky Stora for Multiple Hate Crime Incidents
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NY1. Women Recount Random Punching Attacks on NYC Streets
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ABC7 New York. TikTok Punching NYC Halley Kate Skiboky Stora
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New York State Senate. NY Penal Law Section 485.05
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YPD Crime. NY Penal Law Article 485
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New York Post. Convicted of Sucker-Punching TikTok Influencer, Berating Jewish Couple in NYC Hate Crimes
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WTOP. NYC Man Who Randomly Punched TikTok Influencer Convicted for That Assault and Other Attacks
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U.S. News & World Report. NYC Man Who Randomly Punched TikTok Influencer Convicted for That Assault and Other Attacks
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New York Post. Skiboky Stora Arrested for Sucker-Punching TikTokker
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AOL News. Pro-Trump Mayoral Candidate Descended
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Global News. TikTok New York City Punching Claims Investigation NYPD
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amNewYork. NYPD Sucker Punch Attacks Manhattan TikTok Trend
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Yahoo News. Failed NYC Mayoral Candidate Charged