UPPER WEST SIDE — Police arrested a man for grabbing a 12-year-old girl by the wrist and kissing and hugging a 13-year-old girl at the Upper West Side Shake Shack Monday, they said.
Herbert Stokes, 36, who lives in a homeless shelter on Wards Island, is charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of sexual abuse, police said.
Stokes first approached the 12-year-old on the stairs at Shake Shack at 366 Columbus Ave., at West 77th Street, at 11:30 a.m. Monday and grabbed her wrist before heading downstairs, police said.
About five to 10 minutes later, Stokes went outside the restaurant, asked a 13-year-old girl her name, and then hugged her and kissed her on the cheek before fleeing along Columbus Avenue, police said.
Information about Stokes' lawyer was not immediately available.