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NEW YORK: A New York man previously convicted of murdering his mother was arrested and charged with assaulting a 65-year-old Asian woman in a hate crime, an attack captured on video that went viral amid a surge in anti-incidents. Asians in the United States. State.
Police identified Brandon Elliot, 38, as the man seen in the video kicking the woman to the ground and then kicking her several more times Monday near Times Square in midtown Manhattan.
Elliot was due to be arraigned yesterday on two counts of assault in the second degree as a hate crime and one count of attempted assault in the first degree as a hate crime, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said at a news conference.
“Messrs. Elliot is accused of brutally pushing, kicking and stomping a 65-year-old mother to the ground after telling her she didn’t belong here,” Vance said. “There is no place for these heinous acts of anti-Asian violence in New York.” .
Vance added that his office has more than a dozen open cases and ongoing investigations into apparent hateful incidents against members of the Asian-American Pacific Islander community since earlier this year.
The New York Police Department said its Hate Crimes Task Force had been searching for the attacker since Monday afternoon and found Elliot through an investigation that included advice on social media and the community. Elliot, who was on life probation after serving a prison sentence for murdering his mother, was arrested without incident at his residence in New York City on Tuesday, police said.
The New York Times identified the victim of the attack as Vilma Kari, an immigrant from the Philippines, citing a law enforcement source. A spokesman for the NYPD declined to confirm his identity. According to the Times, Kari suffered a pelvic fracture.
“We wish to extend our sincere wishes and speedy recovery to the elderly woman from this unnecessary assault,” Wellington Chen, executive director of the New York City Chinatown Partnership, said Wednesday. “I hope this arrest gives her and her family some relief.”
There has been an increase in reported hate crimes against Asian Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic. Former President Donald Trump often referred to the coronavirus as the “China virus” and the “China plague.”
Such crimes increased 149 percent in 2020 in 16 major cities compared to 2019, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
Concern about hate crimes against Asians rose when six Asian women were among the eight people shot to death this month in Atlanta-area spas. A 21-year-old man was charged with the murders. The police have yet to determine the motive.
The administration of President Joe Biden announced Tuesday a package of measures in response to violence against Asians in the United States, including the deployment of $ 49.5 million of Covid-19 relief funds for American community programs that help to the victims.
In Monday’s attack in New York, security video showed witnesses inside the lobby of a building apparently observing the assault but making no effort to help the woman. A man closed the front door as the attacker walked away.
The Brodsky Organization, which owns and operates the building, said it suspended two employees while he and a union of employees investigated their response to the attack.
“We take this situation very seriously and are committed to strengthening internal training and working with our community to ensure the safety of our residents and neighbors,” the Brodsky Organization said in a statement.
“If the men watching had intervened, I think it would have helped the woman a lot,” New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “We have to be the ones to lead and do something to help, not stay on the sidelines or close the door on someone”
The NYPD is also investigating an assault last week on a subway train against a young man who appeared to be Asian. The attack was captured in another widely viewed video. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the man, who was left unconscious after he was beaten and strangled, has yet to report the crime. – Reuters
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