A 15-year-old girl was groped aboard a Brooklyn city bus two weeks ago, and the man accused of grabbing her is still on the run. Police say the incident unfolded on the B9 bus in the vicinity of Flatbush Avenue and Avenue P, in the stretch of southern Brooklyn that straddles Flatlands and Marine Park, before the suspect took off on foot heading north on Flatbush Avenue.
According to News12 New York, the forcible touching occurred on September 17 on the B9, which runs an eight-mile route between Bay Ridge and the Kings Plaza Shopping Center along 60th Street, Avenue L, and Flatbush Avenue, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Police say the unidentified man grabbed the teenage victim's thigh and chest before fleeing the scene. The exact stretch where the bus was traveling falls under the jurisdiction of the NYPD's 63rd Precinct, which covers Marine Park, Flatlands, Mill Basin, and Bergen Beach, per Wikipedia.
What the Law Says About Transit Groping
Because the alleged touching happened aboard a public bus, the suspect faces a specific statutory provision under New York law. Penal Law § 130.52(2), added to state law in 2015, makes it a Class A misdemeanor to intentionally subject someone to nonconsensual sexual contact for sexual gratification or abuse while aboard a public bus, train, or subway car, according to the New York State Senate. A conviction on that charge carries a maximum of up to 364 days in jail, fines up to $1,000, and as much as six years of probation, according to Saland Law.
The victim's age adds another layer of consequence. Because she is 15, a conviction for forcible touching under § 130.52 would trigger mandatory registration under New York's Sex Offender Registration Act, which imposes public tracking requirements whenever the victim is a minor under 18, Saland Law notes.
Part of a Troubling Pattern on City Buses
This is not an isolated case. NYPD Crime Stoppers has issued a string of public safety alerts in recent months involving teenage victims on city buses, including a search in July for a man accused of touching a 17-year-old female passenger on an S59 bus, and an earlier case in April 2025 involving a man who touched a 17-year-old girl's breast on an S79 bus in Brooklyn before fleeing, according to posts on Facebook.
Hoodline has previously tracked a Flatbush groping spree targeting women in the corridor, part of a wider pattern of transit-related reports across Brooklyn this year. Citywide, NYPD CompStat data through late September recorded 1,607 transit crime complaints year-to-date, a 0.8% uptick from 1,595 in the same period of 2025, according to the New York City Police Department. The same data set showed 4,084 complaints citywide in the broader category of Other Sex Crimes, which includes groping and forcible touching, up 0.6% from 4,059 a year earlier.
How to Report Information
Anyone with information on the identity or whereabouts of the suspect is asked to contact the NYPD's 24-hour Special Victims Squad hotline or the Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-800-577-TIPS, both of which field public reports on transit sexual assaults, according to Norwood News. No arrest had been announced as of publication, and the man remains unidentified.
