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Peekskill resident David Kaufman, age 27 - also known as “David Khalifa,” “John Morray,” and “Big Man,” pleaded guilty to stalking multiple victims between October 2019 and August 2020, including terrorizing messages and inappropriate photos.
According to officials, Kaufman self-identifies as a member of the “Incels,” or the “Involuntary Celibate,” which refers to a group of individuals who are “typically heterosexual, white males, who adhere to a violent and misogynist ideology of male supremacy.
“Incels believe they are entitled to sex with women and to women’s bodies, and they blame women for refusing to have sex with them,” according to prosecutors.
“Incels have an active online community and over the last seven years, and have committed acts of violence against women across the world, including in the United States.”
US Attorney Damian Williams said that beginning in October 2019, Kaufman began sending two women - among others - violent and threatening messages using various social media accounts.
In the messages, Kaufman referred to killing a “Stacy,” an Incel term referring to an attractive woman who rejects or refuses to have sex with an Incel, is hated by Incels, and is targeted by Incels for harassment, vitriol, humiliation, and violence.
“Hey wanna hear a joke? What’s worse than 10 Stacy’s nailed to one tree? One Stacy nailed to ten trees (laughing crying face emoji,)” he wrote in one message.
In another, he shared an image of a victim of a prominent member of the Incel community whose female victim was found stabbed to death with the message: "This is what happened when a woman said ‘no’ to Elliot Rodger . . . . Hopefully (his other victim) never said no to someone just like Elliot Rodger.”
“As he admitted in court, David Kaufman is an adherent of the ‘Incels’ who stalked and terrorized two victims, not only harassing them by impersonating them online, but also graphically threatening to murder them,” Williams said. “Thanks to the FBI, the NYPD, the State Police, and other law enforcement partners, Kaufman is in custody and awaiting sentencing for his admitted crime.”
Kaufman also admitted to creating social media accounts using the first and last names of his victims and impersonating them online, prompting a court to issue an Order of Protection for both women in July 2020, which he repeatedly violated.
Among the violations of that order included Kaufman posting a picture of himself licking a photo of his victim online and researching how to illegally purchase a gun and assemble a semi-automatic rifle.
“The abhorrent acts carried out by David Kaufman are not just isolated offenses but representative of a larger pattern of criminality that tears at the very fabric of our society,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said.
Kaufman pleaded guilty to one count of stalking in violation of multiple federal statutes. When he is sentenced in March 2022, he faces a minimum of one and a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
“Kaufman’s overt hatred of women and sickening threats to harm potential victims caught the eye of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York,” FBI Assistant Director Michael Driscoll said. “We know acts of violence among those in the Incel community have increased in recent years.
“As Kaufman’s guilty plea brings this topic closer to the forefront, we want the public to know the law enforcement community is aware of the threat and working together to confront it.”
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