A 38-year-old woman was groped on the southbound platform at Manhattan's 50 Street subway station in the early hours of March 19, and police say the man who did it is still on the run.
According to detectives, the man walked up behind the victim, grabbed her buttocks and then took off on foot. No arrests have been made, and investigators are asking anyone who was on the platform around that time to get in touch.
The NYPD Crime Stoppers unit shared a wanted alert with surveillance images and a short description of the incident on March 27, 2026, according to NYPD Crime Stoppers. The post notes that the assault happened at about 1:10 a.m. and urges anyone with information to call 1-800-577-TIPS or to send an anonymous tip online.
What "forcible touching" means
Under New York law, forcible touching covers intentionally touching another person's sexual or other intimate parts in order to degrade them or to gratify the actor's sexual desire. The statute specifically includes sexual contact that takes place while a person is a passenger on public transit. Courts have said that squeezing, grabbing or similar pressure can be enough to meet that standard, according to New York Courts.
Part of a string of recent alerts
This latest Crime Stoppers appeal comes amid a run of similar wanted alerts about gropings and forcible-touching cases around the city in recent weeks. Local coverage has tracked comparable notices at Court Square and near Port Authority, and outlets including coverage of an escalator attack at Court Square and reporting from Patch have highlighted several of those incidents.
How to submit tips
Anyone who recognizes the person in the released images or who has video of the March 19 encounter is asked to contact NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS or, for Spanish speakers, 1-888-57-PISTA. Tips can also be submitted at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, per the NYPD Crime Stoppers program page. Tipsters may remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward if their information leads to an arrest.
What comes next
Detectives will review any tips and footage to try to identify the man seen in the surveillance stills. If an arrest is made, forcible touching is typically prosecuted as a class A misdemeanor under New York law, which can carry jail time and court proceedings, according to the state penal code. Transit and precinct investigators will handle the follow-up, and police are asking anyone who has relevant cellphone video to hold on to it for investigators.
