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New York, NY (77WABC)-A violent attack against an Asian American woman was captured on video and shared on social media by NY State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou of one of her constituents being punched in her face in an unprovoked attack Monday. The victim, a 55-year old Asian woman, was suddenly punched outside of a restaurant in Chinatown, as seen below, allegedly by a homeless man, who has a history of 17 prior arrests including assault:
This was just sent to me from my constituent. This just happened in my district in Chinatown. He has been arrested and our precinct is investigating. pic.twitter.com/sxNfCbrlza
— Yuh-Line Niou (@yuhline) May 31, 2021
The attack took place outside of 65 Bayard Street around 6:15 p.m on Memorial Day.
Police say under arrest is 48-year-old Alexander Wright, a homeless man. He is charged with assault as a hate crime, assault, and criminal possession of controlled dangerous substance. Wright has at least 17 prior arrests some involving assault.
The man was taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation following the incident.
The female victim was taken to New York-Presbyterian in Lower Manhattan for treatment of a facial injury.
No words were exchanged between the victim and the suspect.
There have been at least 42 incidents of reported bias crimes against Asian Americans in NYC since the start of the year with 17 arrests according to the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Dashboard.
