UPDATED 3/31, 10:20 a.m. ET: The NYPD arrested a suspect in the beating of the 65-year-old Asian American woman, the Associated Press reports. Brandon Elliot, 38, was convicted of killing his mother in 2002 when he was just 19. Per the AP, he was released from prison in 2019 and is on lifetime parole. Elliot was reportedly living at a hotel-turned-homeless shelter located just blocks away from where the attack took place.
Elliot is facing charges of assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, assault and attempted assault in the attack he perpetrated against the woman, who has since been identified as Vilma Kari.
See original story below.
Video showing a 65-year-old Asian woman being attacked has surfaced, WABC-TV reports. The victim, who was allegedly subjected to anti-Asian statements by the attacker, is seen being kicked several times in the footage.
“Fuck you, you don’t belong here,” the man allegedly yelled at the woman, the New York Postreports sources as saying. The woman suffered a fractured pelvis as a result of the attack. She was taken to NYU Langone Hospital and is in stable condition.
The attack occurred at 360 West 43rd Street in Manhattan on Monday shortly before noon. The New York Police Department is currently attempting to locate the assailant in the suspected hate crime.
Warning: The below video contains violence.
“Asian Americans for too long in this country have been shamefully scapegoated because of ignorant fear,” New York Representative Grace Meng said on Monday in response to violent attacks against Asian Americans, per WABC-TV. “That is the history of this country.”
The attack against the unidentified woman comes on the heels of a disturbingspikeof anti-Asian hate crimes that have taken place across the country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have pointed to former president Trump’s xenophobic language as exacerbating anti-Asian sentiments. Earlier today, video began circulating showing a man being repeatedly punched in Brooklyn while on a subway car though it’s unclear what precipitated the violence. Although it was initially assumed that the victim was Asian, ABC 7 later reported that the person who recorded the footage as saying that the victim actually “appeared to be Hispanic” and “that he instigated by calling assailant the N-word.” The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Unit is also investigating that incident.
