Man arrested for allegedly threatening to stab undercover Asian officer in NYC

A man was arrested on Friday for allegedly threatening to stab an undercover Asian police officer in New York City.

Juvian Rodriguez, 35, is facing several charges including harassment as a hate crime, according to CBS New York. 

Rodriguez allegedly approached the officer as they were on an escalator entering Penn Station and started shouting anti-Asian statements, ABC 7 New York reported.

Rodriguez allegedly told the officer to “go back to China before you end up in the (expletive) graveyard,” and then threatened to stab the officer, the news outlet reported.

He was given supervised release after his arraignment on Saturday, and is due back in court in May.

The Hill has reached out to NYPD for comment.

The arrest is the second made this week amid the New York Police Department’s efforts to root out anti-Asian hate crimes by placing plainclothes officers in areas where they commonly occur.

On Tuesday, a woman named Sharon Williams was arrested outside of nail salon in New York’s Chinatown after allegedly hurling racial slurs at at the salon’s staff. She allegedly exited the building and harassed someone on the street before a plainclothes officer intervened.

She faces charges of harassment as a hate crime, as well as aggravated harassment as a hate crime.

“Second time this week they picked the wrong person,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Twitter. “Thank you to all our Officers and Detectives on the front lines keeping New Yorkers safe.”

Second time this week they picked the wrong person. Thank you to all our Officers and Detectives on the front lines keeping New Yorkers safe.

NYPD quickly arrests hate suspect for menacing Asian undercover officer in Manhattan https://t.co/RQBPpYM6VJ

— Commissioner Shea (@NYPDShea) April 10, 2021

Incidents of anti-Asian hate spiked in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China. 

Earlier this year, a gunman went on a shooting spree to several massage parlors in the Atlanta, Ga., area killing 8 people — 6 of whom were Asian women. 

In other instances, elderly Asian Americans have faced harassment and physical abuse in public, including a 65-year-old woman in New York City who was knocked to the ground and kicked repeatedly outside of a building in Hell’s Kitchen.