Rapper's arrest caught on camera after he 'stopped a sexual assault' on New York bus

Moise Morancy says he was later released and hailed as a 'hero' by police

A hip hop artist and actor says he saved a teenage girl from being groped by a drunk man in New York, before his brief detention by police was caught on camera.

Moise Morancy posted a video on Facebook where he is seen holding down a man, accusing him of “touching the girl without her permission” and repeatedly shouted at him to “not touch her again”. The video later shows officers entering the bus and detaining both men involved, amid scenes of confusion.

Describing the encounter on a bus in Queens on his Facebook page later, Morancy said: “So I’m on my way home from the studio finalizing my debut mixtape “Chronicles of a Ghetto Rose” and I’m sitting at the back of the bus when this drunk guy gets on, saying all types of sexual s*** to this little girl sitting next to me.

“At first he started caressing her hand and I saw how uncomfortable it made her…so she let go and put her hands in her pocket.

“He then proceeded to forcibly do it again. In the process of doing so, he hit my knee and I told him ‘Yo, bro. Don’t touch me.’”

He said the man then shouted racial abuse at him and started to caress the 15-year-old’s leg.

Morancy protested again and claimed the man then reached into his pocket so he began hitting the man in the face, knees and neck.

A bystander then filmed him as he held the man down and shouted at him until the police arrived.

Both the man and Morancy were arrested but the musician was released without charge, according to local TV station Pix11.

A suspect, 36-year-old Pablo Levano, has been charged with forcible touching.

Morancy, who said he had been the victim of racial profiling in the past, later praised the police officers who let him go, telling Pix11 he wanted to thank in particular a black sergeant who arrived on the scene.

"I forget his name, but I want to say ‘thank you’," he said.

“He said 'you're a hero' and shook my hand and said 'I was you 20 years ago', and that touched me.”

Morancy said the incident made him more hopeful for the attitudes of the NYPD, which has been accused of racism in the past.

But he added: “I had to do what I had to do for the girl.

“And I urge other men to step in to intervene when someone's being sexually assaulted. It's disgusting!”