Police in New York on Saturday released photos of a man wanted in connection with an alleged anti-Asian hate crime on a subway with Times Square.
The suspect used anti-Asian insults before spitting twice in the direction of an unidentified 44-year-old woman and her three children, New York police said in a statement.
“The individual knocked the victim’s cellphone out of her hand and then kicked her on the tracks at the back door of the subway while the train was still moving,” the NYPD said.
The man got off the train at a nearby stop and headed west, the department said. Police were stabilized in a hospital after she did not specify.
The department indicated that the man could experience allegations of hate crime.
The attack is among several nationwide in which Asian Americans are apparently being targeted because of their heritage.
Last month, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that hate crimes against Asian Americans in the largest cities in the country skyrocketed by 150 percent by 2020.
Experts have linked the increase to the contagious rhetoric of former President Donald Trump blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic.
Michelle Acevedo contributed.