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'Kiss Cam' Groper Struck Again, Targeting St. Patrick’s Parade-Goers: NYPD

By Maya Rajamani | March 25, 2016 4:56pm | Updated on March 28, 2016 8:32am
 Delashon Atkins, 27, was previously arrested for groping several women who stopped to pose for the 'Kiss Cam' in Times Square.
Delashon Atkins, 27, was previously arrested for groping several women who stopped to pose for the 'Kiss Cam' in Times Square.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

MIDTOWN — A New Jersey resident caught rubbing up against five different women as they posed for the “Kiss Cam” in Times Square last year has struck again — getting caught groping two female parade-goers on St. Patrick’s Day, police said.

A 71-year-old woman from Baldwin, N.Y., was watching the St. Patrick’s Day Parade at the corner of East 50th Street and Fifth Avenue around 4:20 p.m. on March 17 when a police officer saw Delashon Atkins rub up against her without her permission, police and a complaint filed with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.

After Atkins, 27, moved away from the woman, the police officer noticed she appeared upset, but didn’t say anything to him, the DA’s office said.

Nearly 20 minutes later, the same police officer saw Atkins rub up against a 48-year-old parade-goer from Knoxville, Tenn., for about two minutes, police and the DA’s office said.

Atkins was arrested at the scene and charged with two counts of forcible touching and two counts of sexual abuse, the complaint said.

A judge set Atkins’ bail at $1,000 in cash or $2,500 bond, the DA’s office said. He was released on Tuesday after paying his bail, city Department of Correction records show.

Atkins was one of four people arrested within a month last fall for groping and rubbing up against women who stopped to pose for Revlon’s Times Square “Kiss Cam.”

On Sept. 29 around 9:52 p.m., a Midtown South police officer saw Atkins rub up against “approximately five women” in front of 1500 Broadway — the building the Kiss Cam billboard hung upon, the DA’s office said.

The women all moved away from Atkins after he did so, the office added.

At that time, he was arrested and charged with five counts of forcible touching and five counts of sexual abuse, the DA’s office said.

And little over a month before the September incidents, on Aug. 7 around 8:15 p.m., a police officer observed Atkins rubbing up against a 13-year-old girl standing at the Kiss Cam location.

Atkins was charged with one count of forcible touching and two counts of sexual abuse for that incident, the DA’s office said.

Police urged the company to shut down the interactive billboard — which displayed photos snapped by a camera focused on a Times Square pedestrian plaza — following a spate of on-camera groping incidents.

The company did so temporarily, before turning it back on in mid-October.

“People [are] so intent on taking selfies of themselves they don’t realize someone’s grabbing their butt while they’re taking a photo,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said at an October press conference.

Atkins is expected to appear in court on April 1 for his most recent arrests, the DA’s office said.

His attorney did not immediately respond to request for comment on Friday.