A Manhattan woman who dodged a stranger’s punch on a downtown street last month says she then watched in disbelief as the same man attacked two more women within five minutes, walked free the next day, and assaulted an 85-year-old man hours later.
The 28-year-old finance worker, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for her safety, was walking on Fulton Street near Water Street in lower Manhattan when Christopher Tarrant, 24, shouted “Watch out!” and swung at her face. She ducked enough that the blow slammed into her shoulder instead, she told The Post.
“This is the most insane story ever,” she said. “I’m walking and I’m on my phone and then all of a sudden I hear this guy shout ‘Watch out!'” She called police while following Tarrant and allegedly saw him hurl a glass bottle at an older woman, then punch another woman near the South Street Seaport.
Police arrested Tarrant but charged him only with misdemeanor assault for allegedly striking the finance worker. The two other women did not remain to file complaints. She gave officers the phone number of the other woman she saw punched, but police cannot take a crime complaint without a victim present, an NYPD spokesman said.
A Manhattan judge released Tarrant the following day because the misdemeanor charge was not bail-eligible under 2019 state reform laws, court records show. The victim was stunned. “We walk around and we expect to not feel like we’re in danger all the time whether it’s at night or during the day,” she said. “And when the people hired to protect us don’t really step into the full role of their responsibilities it’s really scary.”
The day after his release, Tarrant allegedly found a new target in Hell’s Kitchen. Prosecutors say he kicked an 85-year-old man in the legs until he fell, then punched him twice in the face. This time, Tarrant faced a felony assault charge because his victim was over 65.
Prosecutors requested $25,000 cash bail or $50,000 bond. New York City Criminal Court Judge Jeffrey Gershuny instead freed Tarrant on supervised release. Gershuny, appointed by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2019, has drawn scrutiny before. Last year he released Cornell Neilly, 35, despite 34 prior arrests for bank robbery and an alleged five-bank spree while on parole; prosecutors had sought $50,000 cash bail or $150,000 bond. Gershuny was also censured last year for pulling his own firearm in a Brooklyn courtroom during what he called a “little experiment” into whether an officer could detect a gun.
Retired NYPD Detective Michael Alcazar, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said officers could have pursued additional charges even without cooperative victims. “Non-cooperative victims should not prevent police from charging the perp with additional charges because it was definitely a pattern asault crime,” Alcazar said. “They could have and should have charged multiple assaults based on this pattern.”
“Dangerousness is the missing variable, and when judges ignore it the public pays the price,” Alcazar added. “Judges should be held more accountable to make sure they too are doing their due diligence.”
The 28-year-old victim now remains on constant alert in the neighborhood where she lives and works. Felony assault has climbed 14% in the NYPD’s 1st Precinct, which covers Soho, Tribeca and Wall Street, with 151 incidents so far this year compared to 133 during the same period last year, according to department data.
Tarrant’s public defender did not return a call seeking comment.