Attack on elderly Filipino woman on San Diego trolley

country

 

 

Photo by: ABC 10News

 

By: Melissa Mecija

Posted at 6:16 PM, Feb 15, 2021

 

and last updated 11:37 AM, Feb 16, 2021

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- An elderly Filipino woman was the victim of an unprovoked attack on a San Diego trolley, multiple sources told ABC 10News.

Sources said a man punched her for seemingly no reason at all. Witnesses helped her report it to police. She was treated at a local hospital. It is unclear if any arrest has been made.

Recent Stories from 10news.com

Top VideosWATCH MORENew small business loanoption emerges

 

00:05/00:16SKIP AD

 

“My first reaction is angry and then I was just sad for her,” said JoAnn Fields, a community advocate and director of the Filipino Resource Center.

Community advocate JoAnn Fields said she has noticed an increase in incidents since the start of the pandemic. “The previous president calling the coronavirus the Chinese virus… that just amplified, I believe, hate toward our community,” Fields said.

Attacks on elderly Asian-Americans have been caught on video in recent weeks. 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, a native of Thailand, was on a morning walk in the San Francisco area when he was tackled. His head slammed the pavement. Ratanapakdee later died.

“To see this trend, awful trend, happening throughout the United States should put us on alert," Fields said.

The group Stop AAPI Hate started tracking anti-Asian hate nationwide beginning in mid-March. It recorded more than 2,800 accounts by the end of 2020.

In San Diego County, the District Attorney’s office has three anti-Asian hate crime cases currently pen. There were none in 2018 and 2019.

“It makes me very angry seeing how ignorant people are,” said Kent, a former Uber driver. He did not want to use his last name.

While picking up passengers in the Convoy area March of last year, he said the passengers immediately started poking fun of the coronavirus and his Hong Kong background. Kent remained mostly quiet during the ride when the passengers said he could let them out if he wanted. Kent said the passengers then gave him a one-star rating.

He no longer is a ride-share driver. “I stopped because of the pandemic and also I’m afraid something like this would happen again,” Kent said. “That incident was only verbal. What if I get attacked next time?”

ABC 10News reached out to the San Diego Police Department and the Metropolitan Transit System for comment regarding the trolley attack. Due to the holiday, ABC 10News has yet to hear back.

https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/attack-on-elderly-filipino-woman-on-trolley

https://twitter.com/AmberKTVU/status/1361545424096567296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1361545424096567296%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnextshark.com%2Foakland-chinatown-store-owner-intervened-robbery%2F

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- A woman is speaking out after a random unprovoked attack on a subway train left her battered and bruised.

"Just with his right hand, punched my left side face," the victim said. "Hurt and blood, bleeding."

A 71-year-old woman says the suspect didn't say a word as he walked right up to her sitting on a moving E train and then slugged her in her face.

In this Eyewitness News exclusive, she says she tried at first to chase her attacker.

The suspect is said to be a man in his 40s wearing a blue jacket, black pants, and a black mask.

"I was shocked. I want to get up to beat him up," she said. "Now I get up, he go to right away, go to another car."

She says it happened while the train was at 53rd Street moving between 5th and 7th Avenues just after 11 a.m.

The NYPD is not investigating the assault as a potential hate crime, but she says there's no doubt in her mind that this attack was racially motivated because she says two smaller non-Asian women were sitting next to her -- yet she was singled out.

"Hate Asian people. Because very obviously I'm strong, big," she said.

The 71-year-old victim will be ok physically, but psychologically, she's shaken.

"I don't take subway no more. No more," she said.

In fact, she's one of two Asian seniors assaulted in unprovoked attacks on the subway on Tuesday.

In the first incident, a 68-year-old woman was punched on the back of the head around 6:50 a.m. on the northbound A train platform at 125th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue.

The perpetrator, described as a man in his 20s, fled the scene on foot.

The two attacks are just the latest in a string of subway crimes that has prompted the NYPD to add more than 600 officers to the transit system.

Last weekend, a homeless man allegedly stabbed and killed two people on the A train.

Police say they used surveillance video and a victim's statement to track down 21-year-old Rigoberto Lopez, who has a history of mental illness.

Another man was stabbed on the 1 train platform at Christopher Street last week, and in January, police body camera footage showed the moment someone tried to shove a woman in front of a moving train.

Other recent incidents also include a February 3 slashing in the East Village, where Noel Quintana received a face laceration on the L train.

"I was scared because I thought I was going to die," he said. "And nobody helped me."

https://abc7ny.com/subway-attack-nyc-random-punch-a-train-stabbing/10345061/

OAKLAND (KPIX 5) — A store owner in Oakland’s Chinatown ended up behind bars Monday night after using a handgun to fight back in the latest of a string of violent crimes in the neighborhood.

The spate of recent attacks and violent robberies in the area have raised tensions.

As they look for a way to cool things down in their community, Chinatown officials and police walked door to door Tuesday afternoon, assuring business owners that they are taking the recent series of violent robberies seriously.

“Because with one person being robbed, that can have a negative impact on someone watching that,” said Oakland Police Capt. Bobby Hookfin. “Even though they’re not the victim, they’re kind of in a concentric circle of a victim, because they see someone being victimized. So that can resonate as well.”

It resonated Monday night. At about 5:30 p.m., a liquor store owner saw a woman being robbed of her camera at the corner of Ninth and Franklin. After seeing the woman knocked to the ground, the owner ran out with a gun, ordering the assailant to stop and reportedly firing four shots.

The suspect fled in a vehicle, but when police arrived, they took the business owner into custody.

“When I talk to the entire community they feel sad that someone is trying to help others and ends up to be the one arrested or being in custody,” said Carl Chan.

As head of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, Chan has been working to calm nerves at the same time he is appealing for more police presence in the area. Armed security guards are already patrolling the streets, funded by donations from the public. Chan worries that without more cops, other business owners — like the man who was arrested Monday — will seek to deal with the problem themselves.

“So, I think many of the people feel strongly that we should be supporting the store owner,” Chan said.

But he knows what will happen if his community becomes a place where safety can only come from the end of a gun.

“I am so worried because I heard the news that many people are trying to find ways to protect themselves,” Chan explained. “And we do not believe that violence against violence is the way to go.”

New Oakland Chief of Police LeRonne Armstrong also addressed the incident in a live Facebook video Tuesday afternoon.

Armstrong told gathered media that police want input from the public, but for safety reasons would rather people report crimes to the department instead of getting involved.

“Our message really is that we don’t want to see our business owners or others begin to arm themselves,” said Armstrong. “We would really prefer them to be good witnesses and give us the observations that they have; share that information, call law enforcement immediately and let OPD respond and follow up. What we really don’t want to do is bring any additional issues that threaten safety into the equation.”

Armstrong noted that officers often times are challenged when they have to determine who the suspect is when encountering armed citizens who are trying to intervene in a situation.

“Particularly, we don’t want people to fire weapons into our community. When weapons are fired in our community, there could be unintended victims; people who are hit by gunfire. And we want to avoid that as much as we can.”

Oakland Police confirmed in a statement that the man who fired the shots was arrested and said that the investigation into the incident was ongoing. It was mentioned during a question posed to Armstrong that the business owner did not spend the night in jail.

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/02/17/oakland-chinatown-shop-owner-arrested-after-firing-handgun-during-robbery/

View this post on Instagram