A bleach-blond homeless man arrested on suspicion of racist attacks on seven Asian women is an Army vet whose mom has a restraining order against him, and who allegedly hurled the n-word at NYPD cops after his apprehension.
Steven Zajonc, 28, was apprehended on Wednesday, after barricading himself inside a bathroom at a Manhattan library and causing a standoff with the police.
Zajonc, a bleach-blond homeless man who has ties to Sarasota, Florida, and Staten Island, New York, now faces charges of assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, aggravated harassment and harassment.
He is accused of targeting seven women on February 27 between 6.30pm and 8.30pm, from Madison Avenue and East 30th Street to Broadway and East Eighth Street.
While Zajonc does not appear to have a criminal history in New York, court records in Florida reveal that in October 2020, his mother, Denise Zajonc, sought an injunction for protection against him, citing domestic violence.
According to the court docket, Zajonc was not served with the injunction. The documents related to this case, which has been dormant since October 2021, are not publicly available online because they have a ‘protected’ status.
Social media posts reveal that in 2015, Zajonc served in the US Army and was stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas, which is home to the 1st Infantry Division. It is unknown at this time when he retired from the military. DailyMail.com submitted a request with National Personnel Records Center on Thursday, seeking documents concerning Zajonc’s service.
Older photos posted on Zajonc’s Instagram page, and his sister and mother’s Facebook accounts showed the homeless suspect with dark hair. At the time of his arrest on Wednesday, he was seen sporting platinum-blond locks and bleached eyebrows.
His alleged attacks come after a spate of high-profile attacks on Asian-Americans in recent weeks – two of them deadly. Last week, Asian grandmother GuiYing Ma, 61, died after fighting for three months to recover from brain damage after being smashed in the face with a rock during a New York City street attack.
A photo posted in 2015 shows Steven Zajonc, a suspect in a spate of anti-Asian attacks in Manhattan, in his US Army uniform. The 28-year-old is now homeless and faces hate crime charges
Steven Zajonc, 28, was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, aggravated harassment and harassment
He is accused of targeting seven women between 6.30pm and 8.30pm from Madison Avenue and East 30th Street to Broadway and East Eighth Street
Zajonc ignored reporters’ questions as he was bundled into a waiting cop car
Steven Zajonc, 28, was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, aggravated harassment and harassment
This map shows the times and locations of the attacks, from Midtown Manhattan to Nolita and Greenwich Village, on Sunday
Ma, who immigrated four years ago from Liaoning, China, was sweeping her front sidewalk on November 26, 2021 in Jackson Heights, Queens when Elisaul Perez, 32, homeless man who was sleeping on the street attacked her, according to her family.
The first victim of the Sunday attacks, a 57-year-old Asian woman, was hit in the face by a man near Madison Avenue and East 30th Street.
She went to a nearby hospital to have treatment for a cut on her lip and facial swelling.
Just 10 minutes later police were called about another attack near Fifth Avenue and East 30th Street where a 25-year-old Asian woman was punched in the face by a man who ran away.
A $3,500 reward was being offered for information leading to the racist attacker’s capture
And only five minutes after that police were called again after a man punched a 21-year-old Asian woman in the face near Park Avenue South and East 23rd Street.
She was rushed to hospital with facial cuts and a swollen mouth.
Just before 7pm a fourth Asian woman, 25, was punched in the face in Union Square near Irving Place and East 17th Street. She was also left with a cut on her face and swollen lip but didn’t need hospital treatment.
At 7.15pm a 19-year-old Asian woman was elbowed in the face in the same area by a man who ran off.
The sixth attack was against a 25-year-old Asian woman who was elbowed in the face near East Houston and Mott Street and just one hour later a 20-year-old Asian woman was shoved to the ground in the same area.
Asian Americans have experienced a 343 percent increase in hate crimes in 2021 with 133 attacks. Hispanics are also seeing a rise in attacks with eight attacks happening in 2021, compared to one in 2020
Only 219 people were arrested for hate crimes last year, though there were 524 such complaints. In 2020, there were 265 complaints and 93 arrests
Zajonc is believed to be originally from Florida but currently homeless in New York City.
One East Side resident told CBS: ‘I try not to let it totally change my life but at the same time I’ve noticed there’s an uptick in that stuff so I’m a little bit more cautious.’
The latest spate of attacks adds to the increasing number of assaults Asians Americans have suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The NYPD has created an Asian Hate Crime Task Force in response to the increase in attacks and the department recorded 524 hate crime incidents in the city last year – almost double the amount in 2020 and the highest it’s been in five years.
Some 131 ‘anti-Asian’ incidents were recorded in 2021 – a 385 per cent increase from the 27 reported in 2020.
Adams reassigned Inspector Jessica Corey, who led the Hate Crime Task Force, last month. His office has not clarified where she was placed or who would replace her
Sunday’s crime spree came just two weeks after Christina Yuna Lee, a 35-year-old Korean-American, was followed by a homeless criminal to her apartment on the Lower East Side and stabbed to death in the bathtub.
In January, Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, was shoved to her death in front of a train at the West 42nd Street subway station.
On Monday, New York City Mayor ousted Jessica Corey, the head of the NYPD’s hate crimes unit, which has made arrests in fewer than half of all reported incidents.
‘We were too slow in investigating [crimes] as possible hate crimes,’ Adams said Monday as he commented on Corey’s ouster. ‘I wanted a new face there, a new vision.’
Lee was reassigned to the firearms and tactics unit, after Adams learned that she had allegedly berated Esther Lee, a hate crime victim, for filming the man who she said spat on her and called her a ‘carrier’ aboard an A train last fall.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that his office ‘tragically’ currently has 33 open hate crime cases involving anti-Asian hate crimes – the most since the establishment of the office’s Hate Crime Unit in 2010.
In 2021, the Manhattan DA’s Office prosecuted nearly four times more anti-Asian hate crimes than in the previous year.