Peekskill Man Pleads Guilty to Stalking Multiple Victims
A Peekskill man could face up to five years in prison after pleading guilty last week in White Plains federal court to stalking multiple victims between October 2019 and August 2020.
David Kaufman, 27, is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Nelson Román on Mar. 16.
According to Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Kaufman self-identifies as a member of the “Incels,” or the “Involuntary Celibate,” which refers to a group of individuals, typically heterosexual, white males, who adhere to a violent and misogynist ideology of male supremacy. Incels believe they are entitled to sex with women and to women’s bodies, and they blame women for refusing to have sex with them, authorities stated.
Incels have an active online community, and over the last seven years it has also committed acts of violence against women around the world, including in the United States.
“As he admitted in court, David Kaufman is an adherent of the Incels who stalked and terrorized two victims, not only harassing them by impersonating them online, but also graphically threatening to murder them,” Williams said. “Thanks to the FBI, the NYPD, the state police and other law enforcement partners, Kaufman is in custody and awaiting sentencing for his admitted crime.”
Kaufman’s “overt hatred of women and sickening threats to harm potential victims” caught the attention of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, said FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll.
“We know acts of violence among those in the Incel community have increased in recent years,” he said. As Kaufman’s guilty plea brings this topic closer to the forefront, we want the public to know the law enforcement community is aware of the threat and working together to confront it.”
According to the indictment, beginning around October 2019, Kaufman sent two victims, among others, violent and threatening messages using various social media accounts. In those messages, Kaufman self-identified as an Incel and expressed his hatred of women.
Kaufman, who also went by the names “David Khalifa,” “John Morray” and “Big Man,” also created social media accounts using the first and last names of the two victims and impersonated them online.
In the summer of 2020, law enforcement officers approached Kaufman and told him to stop harassing the victims. On about July 14, 2020, an order of protection was issued in Westchester County ordering Kaufman to, among other things, refrain from communication or any other contact with the victims.
Notwithstanding the order of protection and warnings by law enforcement, Kaufman continued to send harassing and threatening messages to the victims through August 2020, the U.S. Attorney’s office stated. On or about Aug. 16, 2020, Kaufman posted a picture of himself licking a photograph of one of the victims.
Kaufman also conducted online surveillance of the victim’s residence and researched how to illegally purchase a gun and assemble a semi-automatic rifle.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
