A 19-year-old woman was groped on the southbound N train platform at the Times Square-42nd Street subway station on the night of August 3, and the man responsible slipped onto a downtown 3 train and disappeared before officers could catch up to him. More than three weeks later, the NYPD says it still doesn't have a name or a face to attach to the case, and it's now asking the public for help finding him.
According to NYPD Crime Stoppers, the victim was standing on the platform around 10:13 p.m. when an unidentified man approached her and grabbed her groin over her clothing. She pulled away from him, but he fled the scene by boarding a southbound 3 train and has not been located since. Investigators have released photos of the man in hopes that someone recognizes him.
The conduct described by police fits New York's forcible touching statute, which criminalizes intentionally grabbing, squeezing, or pinching another person's intimate body parts without consent and explicitly covers non-consensual contact against passengers on public subway trains, according to WomensLaw.org. That charge is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. A related charge, Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree, covers non-consensual sexual contact for sexual gratification and carries a maximum sentence of 90 days, per Saland Law.
A Sprawling Transit Hub Complicates the Search
The Times Square-42nd Street complex where the attack happened falls under NYPD Transit District 1, the command responsible for subway public safety and felony investigations across Midtown Manhattan's transit hubs, as reported by Chelsea News NY. The station's web of connecting lines makes it easy for someone to vanish quickly, which is exactly what happened here: the suspect simply crossed from the N platform to a 3 train and rode off before anyone could stop him. That tactical challenge is part of why detectives are leaning so heavily on public tips to crack the case.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish speakers, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or via X at @NYPDTips, and the department says all calls to Crime Stoppers are kept strictly confidential. The program, run in partnership with the New York City Police Foundation since 1983, offers anonymous cash rewards of up to $3,500 for tips leading to an arrest and indictment in felony cases, according to the New York City Police Foundation.
Part of a Recent Run of Transit Safety Incidents
The Times Square groping comes on the heels of other unsettling incidents at the same station and elsewhere on the system. Just weeks earlier, on July 27, officers investigated an anti-Asian hate crime assault in which a 21-year-old man was beaten aboard an R train entering the Times Square-42nd Street complex, Chelsea News NY reported. And on August 19, NYPD Crime Stoppers put out a separate appeal after a 25-year-old woman was physically attacked at the New Utrecht Avenue station in Brooklyn, according to BoroPark24.
The broader safety picture is mixed. State data released in January showed that overall New York City subway crime fell to its lowest level in 16 years during 2025, according to the Office of Governor Kathy Hochul. But NYPD transit data reported in March found major subway crime rose 17% in early 2026 compared with the same period the year before, driven by increases in robberies and assaults, per the New York Post. NYPD CompStat figures covering the week of August 17 to 23 showed 3,513 citywide non-rape sex crime complaints so far this year, essentially unchanged from the 3,512 logged over the same stretch in 2025.
Transit enforcement has long relied on plainclothes patrols and public appeal campaigns to combat unwanted sexual contact on crowded platforms and train cars, a strategy that dates back years, as noted by Metro Magazine. For now, the man who grabbed the 19-year-old at Times Square remains unidentified, and investigators are counting on someone in the public to recognize him from the photos NYPD Crime Stoppers has released.
