Skateboarder arrested near campus for sexual abuse, resisting arrest

A man accused of groping four women while skateboarding down Broadway was arrested Thursday during a dramatic confrontation that drew a crowd of nearly 75 onlookers.

Thomas McDonnell, 22, was tased three times at the southwest corner of West 111th Street and Broadway at 2:10 p.m. after groping several women near campus.

He was charged with four counts of forcible touching, four counts of sexual abuse, and one count of resisting arrest, NYPD Sgt. Carlos Nieves said.

“They took him down. He tried to run but they tased him again and again and again,” said Khan, a man who works in Morningside Heights and declined to give his last name because his employer did not want him to speak with the press.

Between 1:30 pm and the time of the arrest, four women complained to the police that a man “touched their private areas, their breasts, buttocks or vagina,” Nieves said. All of the complaints took place in the vicinity of the arrest.

The police reported that the arrest took place at 112th Street and Broadway, but witnesses said otherwise.

Pete Papaharalambous, a manager at Tom’s Restaurant since the 1970’s, said at least seven or eight police cars pulled up in front of Famous Famiglia, the pizzeria at the corner of 111th Street and Broadway. Between 50 and 75 onlookers witnessed the event, Papaharalambous said. Famous Famiglia employees declined to comment.

Khan noted that one policeman appeared to be working undercover, pulling up in a yellow taxi. Other cops asked the onlookers not to take photos or videos and deleted photographic documentation off of their cameras, Khan said.

McDonnell, who is about 6-foot-1, was shirtless and wearing a straw fedora. He had been skateboarding up and down Broadway before his arrest.

Khan described him as “very muscular,” enabling him to stand back up after he was tased the first two times. “Nobody would get electrocuted and get right back up,” Khan said. “It looked like he was on drugs.”

A shirtless man matching McDonnell’s description walked into the Bank Street Bookstore before he was arrested, said Beth Puffer, who works at the book shop at 112th Street and Broadway. She said he was “acting a little funny” but left shortly of his own accord.

According to a University official, McDonnell, of Kingston, NY, is neither a Columbia student nor an employee. He was not in the custody of the 26th Precinct as of Friday afternoon, since arrestees do not spend the night in the precinct building. He had not yet been processed by the Department of Corrections.

“If he did it, he made a bad mistake,” Papaharalambous said. “But if not,” he added, wincing at the memory of the arrest, “that’s awful.”