Police say he approaches women alone or in groups and verbally assaults them to get attention while filming the interactions. Two women are speaking out about experiencing the attacks firsthand.
Authorities are looking for a suspect they say has been insulting and pepper spraying young women and then posting the confrontations online.
Johnny Young, 25, is a self-described woman-hating "incel," according to police.
An incel, the portmanteau for "involuntary celibacy," is typically a member of an online community comprised mostly of cisgender men who are unable to find sexual partners or build romantic relationships with women, and whose views toward women are typically hostile.
The most recent attack authorities said Young carried out happened in Costa Mesa, California. Police say he has approached women alone or in groups and verbally assaulted them to get attention while filming the interactions.
Incredibly, when the women have defended themselves and fought back, he has then claimed to be the victim.
Two women have spoken out about experiencing the attacks firsthand. Emily, who only wants her first name used, was assaulted in a video posted by Young.
When she was pepper-sprayed, Emily punched him in the face and bloodied his nose
In another attack, Jessica Estrada raced after Young when he started harassing her girlfriends. After she was pepper sprayed, she fought back.
“I threw my phone at him and I hit him,” Estrada said.
Young lives out of a white van with a green stripe and has posted similar attacks on women in Las Vegas, according to police.
“It could have happened to anybody,” Estrada said.
When Young is found, he will be arrested and charged with hate crimes and assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
