Story at a glance
- Surveillance video shared shows the woman walking through Chinatown when a man walking in the opposite direction punches her in the face.
- She falls to the ground and appears to be unconscious as bystanders approach her and the suspect walks off.
- The victim is expected to be okay, and the suspect was arrested.
A man is facing hate crime charges following an unprovoked attack Monday on an Asian woman in New York City.
NBC News reports 48-year-old Alexander Wright has been charged with assault, assault as a hate crime and criminal possession of a controlled substance.
The charges stem from an assault on a 55-year-old Asian woman outside a restaurant in Chinatown.
Surveillance video shared by New York state Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou shows the woman walking down the street when a man walking in the opposite direction punches her in the face.
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
She falls to the ground and appears to be unconscious as bystanders approach her and the suspect walks off.
She was hospitalized and police said her condition was stable. The victim is expected to be okay. Wright was arrested not far from the scene and taken to a local hospital for a psychological evaluation, according to NBC News.
The disturbing assault comes amid an increase in anti-Asian attacks in the U.S.
A recent report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino found anti-Asian hate crimes in major U.S. cities increased 169 percent in the first quarter of 2021 from the same period last year.
President Biden last month signed legislation into law aiming to combat the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans. The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act is designed to improve hate crime tracking and reporting by assigning a Justice Department official to review and expedite hate crime reports and bolster support for state and local officials investigating such crimes.
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