Police have arrested a man in connection with three attacks on Asian Americans last month in Chinatown, Oakland, CBS San Francisco reported.
Yahya Muslim, 28, was charged with assault, assault of an elderly man and a special charge while on bail, according to the Alameda County Sheriff. The office also said that Muslim had two convictions for crimes.
The newly sworn LeRonne Armstrong, chief of police in Oakland, announced the arrest Monday. Muslim faces charges of assaulting a 91-year-old man on January 31 who was caught on video. He is accused of assaulting two other people – a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman – on the same day.
Nancy O’Malley, the district attorney in Alameda County, said she was investigating the attacks, which were racistly motivated. She also announced that a special response unit would be set up for crimes against Asians, especially older Asians.
“This is not unique to Chinatown or the Asian community, but the increase in crime we have seen in the city and throughout the province, but we have seen a very specific increase in crimes against Asians over the past few weeks and months. . ” Said Malley.
The new unit also comes after another similar attack in the Bay. An 84-year-old man from Thailand has died after being attacked in San Francisco on January 28. ” A 19-year-old man has been arrested for the murder of the older man and its abuse, the San Francisco District Attorney said.
The recent spate of attacks has attracted national attention and asked actors Daniel Wu and Daniel Dae Kim to donate $ 25,000 for a reward for finding the culprit. In an Instagram post showing the attack on the 91-year-old man, Wu commented on the increase in attacks on Asian Americans.
“We need to do more to help the literally thousands of Americans who have suffered through this absolutely senseless violence,” he said. “We need to take a stand and say ‘no more’.”
“Those of us who have been following these issues since COVID started have seen these incidents appear in our news feeds almost daily, and yet we see that very little is being done about them,” he said. Kim told CBSN’s Elaine Quijano on Tuesday.
In the same interview, Wu called on the federal government to work with community groups that have made the fight against racism against Asian Americans a priority. “What the federal government can do further is reach out to community groups that are already in this space and have been doing this work for years and finding out more about how they can help,” Wu said.
White House senior correspondent CBS News Weijia Jiang asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday whether President Biden had seen the videos.
“I do not know that he saw the videos, but he is concerned about the discrimination against the action against the Asian American community. That is why he signed the executive order and why he clearly said that attacks, verbal attacks, any attacks from any form is unacceptable, ” Psaki said.
Days after he was inaugurated, Mr. Biden sign an executive order to reject racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans, specifically targeting anti-Asian animus linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over a period of three months, there were more than 2,120 hate incidents or crimes report according to Asian Americans between March and June last year, according to the Asian Policy Policy and Planning Council and Chinese for Affirmative Action. There was an increase of almost 845% compared to all the reported cases in 2017, 2018 and 2019 combined. The tone of the country was exacerbated by former President Donald Trump, who referred to the virus as “Kung Flu” or the “Chinese virus”.
Separately, community organizers in Oakland set up a fund to have armed private security in Chinatown. As of Tuesday, it has more than $ 62,000 in donations.
Alvin Patrick and Caitlin Yilek contributed to this report.