Social media influencer and author Kindra Hall says she was punched in the head by a stranger passing by in New York’s Upper East Side.
Hall posted an Instagram reel on Tuesday containing security footage from a nail salon that captured the assault as well as video she took of the alleged assailant and their subsequent arrest.
The footage purportedly shows Hall walking and getting hit on the head by a man coming from the opposite direction. She loses her balance and falls over a small fence.
In Hall’s video, the man can be heard asking the influencer to “follow” him and giving her an address he claims is his. In the end, the video shows the man being arrested by two police officers.
In her caption, Hall wrote that the attack took place at around 10.30am on May 14. She claimed that police took around half an hour to arrive and were uncooperative.
“I wasn’t on my phone when it happened. I wasn’t distracted. It wasn’t an unsafe hour. I even made note of the guy when I saw him, but it wasn’t until I saw a strange flick in his hand that I realized something wasn’t right,” she said.
Hall alleged that even after she showed the police officers her video of the man shouting threats, they “acted like it was not a big deal”.
“I remember saying, ‘So since I’m not bleeding, a punch to the head is ok?!”
“When I refused to back down and only after I told them I had a headache,” she continued, referring to the police officers, “they agreed to go to the address the man shouted in the video and made me go with them, despite having video footage clearly identifying him. I can’t describe how terrifying that was. Maybe they were hoping I’d refuse and give up?”
Hall said in a video posted to her Instagram Stories that shortly after the attack, she had some swelling by her jaw and ear, where she was punched, along with a headache. While the headache was gone by the time she shared the reel, she had some “gnarly bruising” on the back of her legs where she hit the fence.
She clarified that the security footage in her post was not from the police but was procured by her and her husband. “The cops walked into the nail salon when I pointed out the camera, but said only the owner had access to the footage. Michael, my husband, went back later and the salon happily put him in touch with the owner who immediately found the footage and sent it to him,” she said.
“I am so grateful it wasn’t worse. I’m grateful it was me and not someone who couldn’t take the hit or the fall. I’m hopeful the man gets the help and services he clearly needs. And I’m heartbroken and furious that this is how it is – so much apathy.”
The Independent has reached out to the NYPD for comment.
