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An arrest was made early Wednesday in a brutal attack on a 65-year-old Asian woman that sparked widespread outrage after images of the assault were published.
New York Police identified the suspect as Brandon Elliot, 38, who was charged with two counts of assault as a hate crime and one each of attempted assault as a hate crime, of aggression and attempted aggression.
He was already on parole for life for fatally stabbing his mother in 2002, authorities said. He was released from prison in November 2019, police said. No other details of the murder have been released.
The attack on the Asian woman took place around 11:40 a.m. Monday in the 300 block of West 43rd Street, which is in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, police said.
Police released video showing a man hitting the victim in the stomach, causing him to fall to the ground. The man then stomped on the woman’s head several times while making anti-Asian statements, police said.
Video appeared to show that as the assault continued, at least three people in the lobby of a luxury apartment stood nearby and watched. One of them closed the door as the assailant walked away and left the woman on the ground, the video showed.
“The victim sustained a serious physical injury and was taken by EMS to NYU Langone Hospital,” police said in a statement. She was released on Tuesday.
Early Tuesday, the Brodsky organization, which manages the luxury apartments, said the company had suspended building staff who witnessed the attack and did not appear to be helping the woman.
In a statement posted on Instagram, the company said it “condemns all forms of violence, racism, xenophobia and violence against the Asian American community.”
The company said “staff members who witnessed the attack have been suspended pending a joint investigation with their union.” He was working to identify a “third-party vendor present during the incident so that appropriate action could be taken,” the statement said.
Officials decried the attack and had strong words for witnesses who appeared to be watching the attack without trying to stop it.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called it “absolutely disgusting and outrageous.” He said it was “absolutely unacceptable” that the witnesses did not intervene.
“I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what you do, you have to help your fellow New Yorker,” de Blasio said at a press conference Tuesday. “This is something where we all have to be part of the solution. We can’t just take a step back and watch a heinous act happen.
Representative Grace Meng, DN.Y., who has led legislation to tackle hate crimes linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, said the video embodied the lack of empathy towards Asian Americans.
“We went from being invisible to being sub-human”, Meng tweeted. “We just want to be seen as Americans like everyone else.”
The incident, one of two violent attacks captured on camera in New York City recently, was the latest in a wave of crimes against Asian Americans across the country. An analysis of police department statistics this month found that 16 major cities across the United States experienced significant spikes in anti-Asian hate crimes last year.
The analysis, published by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that while hate crimes fell by 7% overall last year, those targeting Asians rose by nearly by 150%.
New York accounted for the largest increase from three in 2019 to 28 in 2020, an increase of 833%.
On Tuesday, the White House announced initiatives to tackle anti-Asian violence as renewed attention to attacks on Asian Americans, including Monday’s violent assault and the shooting in the subway spa Atlanta this month, killed eight – including six Asian women.
The White House has said President Joe Biden will restore and expand the reach of the White House initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The initiative included funding for AAPI survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault and prejudice research against Asian Americans, the White House said.
As part of his Covid-19 health equity task force, Biden will also create a committee to tackle xenophobia against Asian Americans, the White House has said.
On Tuesday, Representative Judy Chu, D-Calif., Chair of the US Congressional Asia-Pacific Caucus, said she was “horrified” by Monday’s attack and that the initiatives were a step in the right direction.
“We are in this difficult time in which people are suffering so much from the coronavirus,” said Chu, MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan. “They prey on the most vulnerable and the elderly.”
“It’s the kind of thing we go through,” she says. “Irrational blame on Asian Americans for the coronavirus. And that is why we are coming together.”
Lauren Egan contributed.
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