Woman says a man in a face covering chased her around a planter after she tried to avoid him, but a security guard called him ‘harmless’

A TikTok user named Maia Shakiah, who posts as @maiashak, described in a video a man in a face covering stopping in front of her on a street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, then chasing her around a gated planter after she tried to change direction. The TikTok video has drawn about 1.5 million views and more than 4,350 comments. In the caption, she wrote that she filed a police report and asked women to stay vigilant and listen to their intuition.

Shakiah recounted walking when the man stopped about six feet in front of her. She described him as Black, about 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-9, and no more than 145 pounds. According to her account, he wore a thin white hoodie, a white T-shirt, blue jeans, and a long turtleneck-style shirt pulled up to his nose so only his eyes showed. She added that she did not give him a puzzled look because she did not want to alarm him.

She stated that her gut and “the Lord” told her not to walk past him because the space was tight and no one else was around. She said she reached into her crossbody bag for keys with an alarm, then pretended she meant to walk toward a gated island with trees and bushes. That move appeared to antagonize him, she explained.

Woman later said a police officer asked if she got the man’s name and first skipped a description

She quoted him as yelling, “Oh, you trying to run from me? I’m gonna catch you and I’m gonna punch you in your face. I’m gonna f–k you up.” She described running back and forth around the planter while wearing sandals. She then ran to a nearby building, asked a security guard if she could come inside, and was ushered in, she recalled. The guard later told her he sees the man pass by all the time and “I think he’s harmless.”

In a follow-up TikTok video, Shakiah tagged New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and asked whether what she filmed was how filing a police report is supposed to look. She explained that she went to a precinct because the security guard had told her the same man “harasses people all the time.” She said she did not know if a report already existed on him.

She maintained that she could tell from the officer’s questions that he did not believe her. She stated that she told him three times that the person was a stranger who stopped about six feet away. The officer then asked whether she got the man’s name, she added. On camera, she asked whether she was expected to interview her attacker, stop, or take a selfie with him.

She recalled the officer saying he would take the report and that she could get a report number in about two or three business days by calling the precinct or returning with ID. She then pointed out that he had not asked for a description. Her experience reflects a broader pattern of women having to navigate threatening situations alone, as when a Chicago woman noticed a man in her elevator who never pressed a floor and led him into a stairwell he couldn’t get out of. 

She quoted him as saying, “Oh, I’m sorry. What was he wearing?” and later, “I was thinking about some other things in my head.” Getting a description is “kind of the main point of making a report,” she insisted. She said she obtained the officer’s name and badge number and that further consequences for him would follow.

Shakiah asked whether she needed to arrive beaten, battered, bruised, and bloody to be taken seriously. She noted that the officer did not ask if she was okay or follow up with the security guard’s building for another description. She told viewers she received more understanding from strangers online than from the guard and the officer. She repeated the line, “It is all men until it’s no men.”

In a third video on TikTok, she thanked viewers for their support and tips. She stated that she is okay, and she did file a police report and that she has taken more precautions. She listed tips in the caption: get away if possible at first, stay aware of space and surroundings, never turn your back on an attacker, carry protection, and wear sneakers or trainers.

She clarified that she did not show fear during the encounter itself and did not turn her back. The path was a narrow walkway beside a large gated island of trees, she explained, and she had just come around a corner, so she could not reach the street in time. Her mace had been confiscated at an earlier location and she had not replaced it, she added. 

She said she has taken self-defense classes, has more scheduled, and also trains in boxing and heavy lifting. The first rule of defense is to get away, which she said she did. She ended the first video by repeating, “Give me the bear, give me the f–king bear.”

Viewers focused on the guard’s “harmless” remark and on how women move through public space. One commenter wrote, “He was harmless to him because that man would not have attacked him.” Another wrote, “what is the point of male security guards at this point.” 

A third commenter wrote, “I dream of a world where women can take walks at night with headphones in.” Others wrote, “men intentionally causing women fear is never harmless,” “Please get some pepper spray,” and “Being a woman is exhausting.”