A 61-year-old Chinese-American man was attacked by a man who kicked him repeatedly in the head in East Harlem, New York, police said.
The man was collecting cans when he was attacked from behind, knocked to the ground and kicked in the head shortly after 8pm on Friday last week.
He was taken to Harlem Hospital in a critical, but stable condition, police said.
Surveillance video released by the police appears to show the attacker stomping on the victim’s head. Police have not specified a motive.
The New York Police Department’s hate crimes task force is investigating the attack, the latest in a troubling rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in New York and across the US.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the attack “outrageous” on Twitter.
“Make no mistake, we will find the perpetrator and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” De Blasio wrote on Saturday.
The attack recalled last month’s assault near Times Square in which a woman who immigrated from the Philippines was knocked to the ground and stomped on by an attacker who shouted anti-Asian slurs.
A parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago was arrested in that attack.
The US Senate last week passed legislation aimed at fighting the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The measure would expedite the review of hate crimes at the US Department of Justice and provide support for local law enforcement in response to thousands of reported violent incidents in the past year.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday said that he would direct the state hate crimes task force to offer assistance in investigating Friday’s attack.
“I’m sickened to learn of yet another bigoted act of violence against an Asian American man,” the governor said in a statement. “This is not who we are as New Yorkers, and we will not let these cowardly acts of hate against members of our New York family intimidate us.”
Police did not release the victim’s name, but multiple news outlets identified him as Ma Yaopan, a former restaurant worker who lost his job because of the COVID-19 pandemic and was collecting cans to make ends meet.
His wife, Chen Baozhen, 57, pleaded for police to find her husband’s attacker in an interview with the New York Post.
“Please capture him as soon as possible and make him pay,” Chen said in Mandarin through a translator.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of