Arrest (Illustrative)
Arrest (Illustrative)Thinkstock

A 20 year-old New York man has been arrested over a recent wave of violent "knockout game" attacks.

Police say Long Island resident Darryl Mitchell will face charges over the assaults of seven different men in random acts of violence dating as far back as April 2012, and added that they were not ruling out his potential involvement in a number of other similar attacks.

The "Knockout Game" involves attackers randomly punching innocent bystanders in an attempt to knock them out with a single strike. The attacks - which have taken place throughout the US - have targeted men, women and children alike.

New York Jewish community leaders have also claimed that some attackers - primarily African-Americans - were blatantly singling out Jews, in an even uglier, anti-Semitic twist to the "game". Those claims were further bolstered after a local councilwoman controversially suggested that the Jewish victims may be to blame for attracting "jealousy" from black youths.

All of Mitchell's alleged attacks took place "spontaneously and in broad daylight," in the North Babylon and Amityville areas, say police. At least so far, all of his victims appear to be male - two of whom were over the age of 65.

Mitchell was arrested on December 4 and has already pleaded not guilty to four counts of assault.

One of his victims described how he was brutally attacked as he stood in his own driveway. 69-year-old James Graves, says he was punched in the eye twice "out of nowhere" as he went to retrieve a tape measure from his car according to Long Island News.

Another victim required seven stitches to his eyelid after being attacked by Mitchell.