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Those are men with a vendetta against women, she said.
The 40-year-old news and traffic reporter fell victim to one of the random attacks while leaving work last week, and now, she is using her platform to bring awareness to it.
Dillon was heading back to New Jersey after getting off from work last Tuesday, Aug. 14 into Wednesday, Aug. 15 at midnight on Hudson and King streets in New York City when it happened, she said in a 22-minute TikTok video.
"You can’t make it up," she said. "I’m at work reporting, then I become quite literally, the news."
As she does every night on her way back to New Jersey, Dillon clutched her cell phone and remained on guard, as she's been well aware of the random attacks against women, some sucker-punched and slapped by men in broad daylight.
The area was desolate as it is almost every night when she gets off, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw what looked like a man jogging, Dillon said.
Knowing she was in a popular running spot, Dillon didn't think much of it, dismissing the man thinking he'd move past her.
In the blink of an eye, she felt someone grabbing "a good chunk" of her hair, tightly, she said. Then, she was being body-slammed onto the pavement.
"It happened so, so quickly," Dillon said. "I quickly got up, I don't know how — my adrenaline was rushing that's for certain."
Dillon saw the man running back toward where he came from. While Dillon initially remained focused on getting home, she started to come to, and began screaming for help.
A group of men in their 20s came to her aid, she said. They'd heard her cries while they were driving and so they pulled over.
"One said, 'Ma’am you’re bleeding,'" Dillon recalled. She looked down and saw her elbow gushing blood.A bartender at a nearby bar and his friend took Dillon inside and cleaned her up as she called 911.
When police arrived, they informed her she'd have to go to a hospital. The gash on her elbow was so deep that bone was showing.
Dillon told the officers what happened, and said the energy she was feeling was that it was "just another day, another attack."
As it turned out, there was another female right around the corner who got attacked at the exact same time. That victim said she was slapped.
Dillon says she's been in excruciating pain from injuries, and was taken to Lenox Hill by paramedics.
Reporter mode kicked in.
"The second this happened to me I went into reporter mode," Dillon said. "I started interview the paramedic. I started interviewing police. I started interviewing the doctor sewing up my arm.
"In my head I said, 'This is a story I need to cover and I want to cover.'"
While en route to the hospital, Dillon began questioning one paramedic. He said the level of crime has increased drastically since 2020, particularly in regard to random crimes on women. He's also seen random attacks on police and EMTs, some while responding to an incident.
The doctor said he's seen a major uptick in random attacks against women on the street, particularly in the West Village.
Dillon recalled the dozens of videos she saw on social media last spring from women saying they'd been randomly sucker punched or attacked on the streets of New York City. Police chalked it up to homeless people, Dillon said citing a New York Post article.
"I don't buy that," she said. "Obviously, the city is trying to cover up the level of violence and I'm not blaming every police officer, obviously there is a greater agenda... in the gov't structure they're trying to downplay this.
"The streets are not safe for women or anybody in general but in particular females.
"This felt very deliberate and planned. The guy covered his face. He was young he was in shape. I can read energy, I did not get deranged homeless energy from him... The fact they got two females in the same block? That's no coincidence whatsoever."
"These random assaults on females, they're not, per say random. This feels quite planned and deliberate."
Dillon said she believes there are countless other attacks against women are going unreported. She also said she believes the attacks are being carried out by a group of men looking to get revenge on women.
"There is a vendetta against women," she said.
Dillon believes most of the perpetrators were burned by women in the past and have turned their rage into attacks on random women.
"This wasn't a robbery, that wasn't the motive... in my humble opinion the motive here is anger toward females."
Dillon's story doesn't end here: She wants to get to the bottom of it.
"It feels like there is a ring," she said. "I want to investigate this further and I am going to investigate this further.
"If you find this video and you’re a woman, and you’ve been assaulted, attacked on the streets of New York… anywhere around the world, please reach out to me."
Click here for Kelly Dillon's website with her contact information.
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