A maniac seized a 1010 WINS journalist by the hair and body-slammed her to the ground in a random senseless act outside her Manhattan office, according to cops and the victim.
Kelly Dillon, 40 — a veteran New York City news and traffic reporter who was also with WCBS 880 — detailed the sudden attack in a Saturday TikTok video, describing how she was “assaulted on the streets of New York City, randomly, by a man” just after midnight Wednesday.
“There are many crimes being committed — random acts, random attacks — on females on the streets,” Dillon said. “It’s not going away, and it’s not getting any better. And it’s getting much, much worse. And the media and the police are definitely downplaying this. It’s a huge, huge problem.”
Dillon’s ordeal began when she left her Hudson Street office building and started heading home to New Jersey after finishing her last report of the night, she said.
“The area is quite desolate at night, it’s a quiet neighborhood,” she said in the video. “I’m always on guard walking through the city as a young female alone.”
She said she had just crossed the street when she heard someone race up behind her near the intersection of Hudson and King streets.
“I glanced over, and I saw what looked like a man in the corner of my eye,” she said. “It looked like he was jogging. I just thought that somebody was jogging at midnight, it’s really not out of the norm in New York City.”
She moved over to let the runner pass by — but then she felt someone snatch up “a good chunk of my hair” and chuck her into a concrete planter, according to Dillon and police.
“They grabbed my hair so tightly, then quite literally body-slammed me onto the pavement,” Dillon said. “It happened so, so quickly.”
She bounced back up — a reaction she attributes to an influx of adrenaline — and watched as the creep took off down the street.
“I was in such shock,” she said. “I just start screaming for help … and a whole big group of different people heard me and came running to assist me.”
Several bystanders and other good Samaritans helped her with her wounds, while others took off after the attacker, she said.
“I was just overwhelmed that there were good people out there who are willing to step in and help,” Dillon said. “Because I know there are accounts where women have been attacked and no one has helped them.”
“So I feel so lucky and grateful that there was help around and people were willing to step into a very scary situation and come to someone’s aid,” she continued. “I cannot thank these beautiful souls enough.”
She told the cops her story when officers arrived and described her masked attacker as a “tiny, thin” man who was “clearly in shape.”
The police were “very kind, very serious, they seemed kind of unfazed by it,” she said.
“I’m not shocked because this kind of crime is the new norm in New York City,” Dillon said in her video. “It just seemed like another day, another attack. That was the energy I was feeling.”
Paramedics brought her to the hospital, where doctors tended to her wounds — which included a concussion and a “gaping hole” in her elbow that penetrated down to the bone.
She said some of the good Samaritans told her another woman had been randomly slapped in the face just around the corner about 20 minutes later, and cops confirmed the second assault to The Post.
It’s not clear if the second attack was related to Dillon’s or committed by the same perp, police sources said.
The reporter said she’s sharing her story because she wants people with similar experiences to come forward and talk.
“I am putting out the call: If you find this video, and you’re a woman, and you’ve been assaulted or attacked in the streets of New York City … please, reach out to me,” Dillon said. “Please contact me. I want to start telling these stories.”
Dillon added that she thinks city officials are trying to cover up such recent violence, which she believes is more widespread than people know and is being perpetrated by an organized group of men with a vendetta against women.
“They’re absolutely trying to downplay this,” Dillon said of the city. “It cannot be downplayed. The streets are not safe for women or, honestly for anybody right now. But in particular, females. This felt very deliberate and planned.”
The NYPD responded to the allegation in a statement to The Post on Sunday by recounting Dillon’s report of the attack and adding, “There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.”
Dillon said she is slowly recuperating from the shocking assault.
“I can’t move my arm. At this point it’s still healing,” she said. “That’s quite painful. And just obviously, the whole body is in a tremendous level of pain from the body-slam, hitting the pavement and just the trauma, the whole situation.”
“Physically, I’m still recovering. But I’m gonna’ be OK,” she said.
“It could have been so much worse.”
-Additional reporting by Carl Campanile
