An Asian man was punched in the face on the Lower East Side by a homeless man who uttered obscenities during an unprovoked attack. The NYPD considers this a possible hate crime.
The unsuspecting victim parked his car before 9 a.m. Allen Street near Houston Street and checked to make sure he was in a legal spot when the attack took place, an NYPD spokesman said.
There was a language barrier, but the victim told police he heard the attacker say the word ‘Chinese’ several times, police said.
The attacker ran down Allen Street.
The NYPD spokesman said the incident was considered a possible hate crime and the NYPD Asian Tate Force for Hate Crimes is now investigating it. According to a police source, police believe the attacker was homeless because he was wearing a blanket.
Kat Lam, 30, told The Post that she was fetching her morning coffee with her roommate on the corner of Allen between Stanton and Houston streets when she saw the end of the incident.
Lamb describes the attacker as tall and slender, in his mid to late 20s, wearing a brown sweater, with a blanket.
The homeless man started charging behind the elderly man and said, ‘If I see you here again, I’ll hit your ass. “And, ‘I’m just going to punch you,’ ‘Lam recalls. He just poked him right in the face, right above the eye. You could see that this older man was completely shocked. He was just frozen. ”
The attacker ran away when he realized there were witnesses, Lam said.
Police responded “very quickly” to the incident, Lam said. He added that the attack was just completely unfair.
“It was hard not to get emotional because he looked exactly like my father,” she said through tears.
The assault took place this morning after Mayor de Blasio was swept away by protesters through a Union Square vigilance by protesters to protest anti-Asian racism and mourn the victims of the massage parlor in Georgia.
The NYPD recorded a 1300 percent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes during the coronavirus pandemic and intensified patrols in Asian neighborhoods following the killing of massage parlors.