Outrage voiced as attacks on Asians continue in US

Victim dies

In another case, Yao Pan Ma, 61, a Chinese immigrant who was randomly assaulted in April last year, died on New Year's Eve after eight months in a coma.

Jarrod Powell, 50, has been indicted on a charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime in the case.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in statement on Feb 10, "The devastating death of Yao Pan Ma, a beloved father of two, occurred amidst a surge of anti-Asian attacks targeting our families, friends, neighbors and New York values."

When he was struck, Ma was collecting cans to recycle and use for his rent money.

Powell told police he had been attacked by two "Korean or Japanese" men the day before.

In November, Bew Jirajariywetch, a model from Thailand, was attacked by a man at a Manhattan subway station after she left a concert. In video footage, the suspect is seen striking her and holding her down on the platform.

"He hit me multiple times in the face to make sure I couldn't make any noise, and then touched me inappropriately. He took my purse before he was gone," the victim said, speaking alongside her attorney on a television show last week.

The NYPD said Kevin Douglas, 40, had been charged in the incident with second-degree robbery, third-degree robbery and second-degree assault.

Douglas was arrested for another alleged assault the same day.

In March last year, a 65-year-old woman from the Philippines was stomped on by a man as she made her way to church near Times Square. Her attacker told her, "You don't belong here." The victim was hospitalized with a fractured pelvis.

Witnesses to the attack were shocked by video footage showing that three lobby staff members working in a building fronting the sidewalk where the attack occurred did not intervene, and one security guard closed the door. Although they eventually helped the woman and called police, the three men were subsequently fired.

Brandon Elliot, 38, was charged with felony assault as a hate crime in the attack. He was released from prison in 2019 and was on lifetime parole after being convicted of fatally stabbing his mother in 2002.

Activists disappointed

Random violence is not limited to New York.

In San Francisco, where officials have promised to hold perpetrators accountable, activists in Chinatown said they were disappointed that the District Attorney's office had dropped most cases involving anti-Asian hate incidents.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin has come under fire from some Asian American victims.

An Asian American man beaten with a bat two years ago in the city recently filed a lawsuit against Boudin, saying his office had systemically refused to uphold the rights of Asian American victims of racial violence. The victim said the DA's office never informed him of a lenient plea deal cut with his attackers or of the lack of a hate crime charge until after the fact.

Leanna Louie, leader of United Peace Corps, a neighborhood patrol group in San Francisco's Chinatown, said: "We also protested against the way he (Boudin) handled Mr. Vicha Ratanapakdee's case. Mr. Ratanapakdee was killed on the spot, and he (Boudin) made light of it. He said that guy (the suspect) was a teenager and he had a temper tantrum. We were furious that he would make such a statement."

Ratanapakdee, 84, a Thai American, died after he was pushed to the ground by a 19-year-old man in January last year. Video footage of the incident went viral.

Louie said her group helped police with 12 incidents involving anti-Asian attacks in Chinatown, but all the cases were dropped.

In Los Angeles, two high-profile attacks were carried out on the same day last month.

A homeless man attacked Sandra Shells, 70, a nurse at LA County-USC Medical Center, as she waited for a bus to go to work early on Jan 13.Shells, whose skull was fractured, later died in the hospital.

In the other incident, a homeless man fatally stabbed Brianna Kupfer, 24, a UCLA graduate student, as she worked alone at a furniture store.

A 59-year-old Chinese American resident of Orange County, California, who only wanted to give her name as Ping, said she is afraid to ride the subway.

She has a 160-km round-trip commute and used to take the subway to work, but instead of using public transportation, she now drives.

"I'm afraid of being hit or pushed on the subway. Even though driving to and from work takes me a total of three hours every day, I feel safer," she said.

Andy Bales, CEO and president of Union Rescue Mission in the Skid Row district of Los Angeles, told British newspaper The Independent: "Most often it's violence toward others who are homeless, and they suffer the brunt of it. But in LA, 70 percent of people devastated by homelessness are on the streets, and so this presents conditions where pedestrians on their way to work will meet people who are in different states of mental illness."

While New York has a "right to shelter" law requiring the city to provide emergency shelter to the homeless, Los Angeles does not.

Some 8,000 people live in the Skid Row neighborhood in the downtown area, perhaps the largest homeless encampment in the US, The Independent reported.

Evening assault

In Seattle, Emma Shengnan Wang was walking home at about 6:30 pm on Jan 31 when she suddenly found herself face down on the ground with blood pouring from an ear.

Police said Wantez Jamel Tulloss, 31, a homeless man with a 16-year violent criminal history, approached Wang from behind and swung a baseball bat at her with both hands, hitting her on the side of the head before fleeing. The attack was captured by a surveillance camera.

Tulloss was living at a housing facility for transients just over 150 meters from where Wang, an engineer for Amazon Web Services, was struck. After the attack, the suspect was arrested after going to buy a slice of pizza.

Casey McNerthney, of the King County Prosecutor's Office, told KOMO News: "The randomness, the viciousness of it. It's absolutely disturbing－that's why we rushfiled the case. This video footage is nauseating … but we have prosecutors who are doing everything they can to hold this person accountable."

Lia Zhu in San Francisco, Liu Yinmeng in Los Angeles and Linda Deng in Seattle contributed to this story.