East Village Groper Is on the Loose, but Cops Say City Hall Arsonist Has Been Caught
Sometimes the cops—and cameras—do get their man.
| 16 Feb 2025 | 03:52
Person that cops says is a “forcible touching” suspect glances at his soon-to-be-victim in front of 182-184 E. 2nd St., on Jan. 22. (
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A woman is soon to be forcibly touched by a male pretending to look at his phone in front of 182-184 E. 2nd Street, Jan 22, 2025. (
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Another week, another “forcible touching” incident.
This one occurred Jan. 22 at approximately 1 p.m. in the vicinity of East 2nd Street and Avenue A, when an unidentified individual approached a 22-year-old female while walking and “grabbed her buttocks.” The individual then fled on foot. The victim was not injured as a result of this incident.
Surveillance video of the incident shows a young dark-skinned male in purple and black North Face winter jacket appearing to look at his phone while he also stalks his victim, who is walking in the street slightly ahead and to the right of him as they both pass by 182-184 E. 2nd St.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.
ARSONIST WITH RAP SHEET BUSTED IN MANHATTAN & QUEENS
The shiesty-masked alleged serial arsonist who set multiple blazes around the City Hall area of Manhattan and another next to a sleeping subway rider in the early hours of Jan. 10, has been arrested—again.
On Feb. 10, 33-year-old Skky Ifudu was arrested within the confines of the 9th Precinct and charged with 3rd Degree Arson. The disposition of this arrest with the Manhattan D.A. is unclear at press time.
As reported in a prior Crime Watch, the then-unidentified arsonist first set ablaze a police vehicle parked outside 253 Broadway; then another vehicle parked outside 14 Murray St.; then a garbage can outside the Brooklyn Bridge subway station.
Later in his incendiary spree, while aboard the J train, which had entered the Woodhaven Boulevard station in Queens, he set fire to a pile of garbage next to a presumed homeless man and fled.
Frighteningly, the flame-loving madman might have gotten away with it had he not struck again on Jan. 23, when at around 5:45 p.m. he tried to set a 25-year-old male straphanger’s backpack on fire on the 7 train between the Main Street and Junction Boulevard stations in Queens.
When the would-be victim told the arsonist to stop, the assailant displayed a knife and fled.
Skky, a 33-year-old male of 43-44 Kissena Blvd. in Flushing, was arrested in the 102nd Precinct the following day and charged with Reckless Endangerment, Menacing; Criminal Possession of a Weapon; and Attempted Arson. After this, Ifudu was released on $10,000 cash bail.
Interestingly, Ifudu—with the additional middle name of Kristoffer— was already facing Menacing and Harassment charges stemming from a Dec. 16 incident in Queens, when he menaced both an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old woman on a Q27 bus.
Ifudu is due back in court on both Queens cases on Feb. 27.