A man who has claimed he is the great-great-grandson of National Hero Marcus Garvey has been arrested for randomly punching a TikTok influencer in the face in New York City earlier this week, police said Wednesday.

The New York Post said Skiboky Stora, 40, of East New York, was charged with assault on Wednesday.

It said Stora was a perennial down-ballot political candidate who ran for mayor, governor and City Council in the past three years.

The Associated Press reported that the arrest came after several videos went viral on social media showing women describing being suddenly hit by a stranger on a Manhattan sidewalk in recent weeks, though the New York Police Department (NYPD) wouldn’t say if the arrest was related to one of those incidents.

Stora was arrested in connection with an assault on a 23-year-old woman in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood on Monday morning, police said.

The woman told police she was walking near West 16th Street and 7th Avenue when an unknown person hit her in the head and knocked her to the ground, injuring the left side of her face.

One of the videos that has racked up millions of views on social media in recent days shows a popular TikTok user in the same location on Monday describing being assaulted while walking down the sidewalk looking at her phone.

The same day, another popular TikTok user, describing herself as a student at the nearby Parsons School of Design, uploaded a video saying she was punched in the face after leaving class, also while looking at her phone texting.

When asked if the suspect was being investigated for similar assaults, the NYPD said only that “the investigation remains ongoing.”

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