New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and mayoral candidate Andrew Yang expressed anger on Tuesday that nobody intervened to help an elderly Asian woman who was viciously assaulted in Manhattan on Monday.
‘Like so many other people, I woke up to a horrifying video of an Asian woman being horribly beaten for no other reason than her race,’ Yang, who is currently considered the favorite to succeed de Blasio, told reporters in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
‘An elderly Asian woman walking the streets of Hell’s Kitchen could easily have been my mother, because that’s where we live.
‘And so when I saw this video, that is who I thought of.’
Yang’s comments were reported by the New York Post. The former candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president is vying to be the first-ever mayor of Asian descent to take over City Hall.
Public officials in New York City expressed horror and shock after surveillance footage emerged on Tuesday showing a 65-year-old Asian woman being stomped on by an assailant during a random attack in the Hell’s Kitchen section of Manhattan on Monday. The image above shows the unidentified assailant stomping on the victim. He reportedly told her: ‘F*** you, you don’t belong here’
The suspect was also caught clearly on surveillance camera as he walked away from the scene
A police officer hangs a sign offering a reward for information on the suspect on Tuesday
He made the remarks just after horrifying surveillance footage emerged showing the 65-year-old victim being savagely attacked while on her way to church in broad daylight on Monday.
The video – from a previously unseen angle – shows the victim being pushed to the floor and kicked in the head by an unidentified passer-by.
It shows she had been walking towards the man in the moments before he attacked her. He reportedly told her: ‘F*** you, you don’t belong here.’
Two building staff who witnessed the incident have been suspended from work for doing nothing to help her, it also emerged Tuesday.
The mayor, de Blasio, called the video ‘absolutely disgusting and outrageous’ and said it was ‘absolutely unacceptable’ that witnesses did not intervene.
New footage emerged on Tuesday of the moment an Asian woman was knocked to the ground and viciously beaten on her way to church in Manhattan
The video – from a previously unseen angle – shows as the victim, 65, is pushed to floor and kicked in the head by an unidentified passer-by during the vicious daylight attack
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (seen left in Queens on Saturday) and frontrunning mayoral hopeful Andrew Yang (seen right in Brooklyn on Tuesday) condemned the attack and the failure of witnesses nearby to intervene and help the victim
‘I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what you do, you’ve got to help your fellow New Yorker,’ de Blasio said Tuesday at his daily news briefing.
‘If you see someone being attacked, do whatever you can. Make noise. Call out what’s happening. Go and try and help. Immediately call for help. Call 911.
‘This is something where we all have to be part of the solution. We can’t just stand back and watch a heinous act happening.’
Earlier surveillance camera footage from the security guards’ workplace had captured the moment the suspect stomped on her head and face at least three times.
According to video of the assault, the two people who appeared to be security guards walked into the frame and one of them closed the door as the woman was on the ground.
In a statement Tuesday the Brodsky Organization – the management company for the building – said: ‘The staff who witnessed the attack have been suspended pending an investigation in conjunction with their union.
‘The Brodsky Organization is also working to identify a third-party delivery vendor present during the incident so that appropriate action can be taken.’
They added that they ‘condemn all forms of discrimination, racism, xenophobia and violence against the Asian-American community.’
The attack comes amid a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes. The NYPD says there have been 33 hate crimes with an Asian victim so far this year.
The 65-year-old woman was attacked randomly on Monday just before midday
In the original footage, one of the men working in the building appeared to be busy opening up packages while the attack was ongoing.
At one point, a second security guard could be seen closing the front door to the premises where the pair were working, completely ignoring the woman who had just been the victim of a savage assault.
Neither decided to chase after the suspect who was still being hunted by police with a reward offered for information.
The unidentified suspect allegedly hurled anti-Asian statements as he punched and kicked the 65-year-old woman on West 43rd Street near Ninth Avenue just before midday, according to the NYPD.
Protesters pictured outside 360 West 43rd Street in Manhattan on Tuesday
Police are hunting the suspect in the shocking video. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea called Monday’s attack ‘disgusting’
‘F*** you, you don’t belong here,’ the man is said to have yelled at the woman according to sources as reported by the New York Post.
The woman was taken to NYU Langone Hospital in stable condition having suffered a fractured pelvis.
The suspect was also caught clearly on surveillance camera as he walked away from the scene and appeared to be wearing distinctive blue pants, a maroon scarf and beige cardigan.
The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is now investigating the incident.
The NYPD are offering a $2,500 reward for information that leads to an arrest
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea called Monday’s attack ‘disgusting.’
‘I don’t know who attacks a 65-year-old woman and leaves her on the street like that,’ Shea said Tuesday on TV station NY1.
Shea recently said the agency would increase its outreach and patrols in predominantly Asian communities.
According to a report from Stop AAPI Hate over 3,795 incidents were reported to the organization from March 19, 2020, to February 28, 2021. The organization said that number is ‘only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur.’
Protesters pictured outside 360 West 43rd Street in Manhattan on Tuesday
Shea recently said the agency would increase its outreach and patrols in predominantly Asian communities. According to a report from Stop AAPI Hate over 3,795 incidents were reported to the organization from March 19, 2020, to February 28, 2021. The organization said that number is ‘only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur’
