The NYPD is searching for a suspect in connection to a brutal attack on a 61-year-old Chinese American man that occurred Friday night.
According to the NYPD’s Hate Crime Division, the victim was collecting cans in East Harlem just before 8 p.m. ET on Friday when he was attacked from behind, knocked to the ground and kicked in the head.
Surveillance video shared by the NYPD shows the suspect repeatedly stomping on the man’s head.
Click here to view the surveillance video. Warning, the video contains graphic images that may be difficult to watch.
The man was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was listed in critical but stable condition.
Detectives @NYPDHateCrimes and @NYPD25Pct are investigating: Fri. April 23rd, approx. 8:20 PM, 3rd Ave & E. 125 St., a male Asian, 61, was struck from behind causing him to fall to the ground; he was then kicked multiple times in the head and is in Critical Condition.
— NYPD Hate Crimes (@NYPDHateCrimes) April 24, 2021
☎️@NYPDTips pic.twitter.com/fJ56lqK326
Friday’s attack is just the latest in a string of violence against AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) people in New York in recent weeks.
In late March, surveillance camera footage from a midtown Manhattan apartment building captured a brutal, violent attack against an Asian woman. The video showed that security personnel in the building failed to render aid to the victim, and instead closed the door to the building as she lay on the ground.
A suspect in that case, 38-year-old Brandon Elliot, was arrested a few days later. Elliot was reportedly on lifetime parole after being released from prison in 2019 after he was convicted of fatally stabbing his mother in 2002.
Some of the security employees involved in the incident were later fired.
A day after that incident, the NYPD said a suspect yelled anti-Asian slurs at a 44-year-old woman and her three children, spat at her and kicked her cellphone off a subway train.
The rise in hate incidents has caused the NYPD to take drastic measures, including stationing undercover police officers in Asian American neighborhoods. One of those undercover officers made an arrest earlier this month when a suspect yelled a slur at him.
Hate instances against the AAPI community people have been on the rise across the country since last year.
Stop AAPI Hate, an advocacy group, reported nearly 4,000 instances of hate instances against Asian Americans in the U.S. between March 2020 and February 2021 — more than 10 a day.
The rise in hate instances mirrors the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Asian Americans unjustly face blame for the spread of the virus. That sentiment was further spread by former President Donald Trump, who often used racially charged terms to describe the virus.
