A 28-year-old Manhattan resident was arrested and charged with hate crimes Wednesday night in reference to a two-hour spree of assaults on girls of Asian descent in Manhattan over the weekend, one other instance of a grim wave of violence in opposition to Asian Individuals.
There was no indication that the assailant knew any of the seven victims, two of whom have been handled at native hospitals. The police charged the Manhattan man, Steven Zajonc, with seven counts of assault and tried assault labeled as hate crimes and with seven counts of aggravated harassment and harassment that weren’t labeled as hate crimes.
Mr. Zajonc was taken into custody outdoors a public library in Midtown on Wednesday afternoon, a police spokesman mentioned. The police mentioned the person, initially from Florida, had declined to make an announcement after his arrest Wednesday evening.
The primary assault passed off at about 6:30 p.m. on Sunday round thirtieth Avenue and Madison Avenue, when the person approached a 57-year-old girl and, with out uttering a phrase, punched her within the face, the police mentioned. Ten minutes later and a block west, the nightmare repeated itself. The second sufferer was 25.
The assaults all adopted the identical template because the assailant made his approach south. The subsequent two victims, punched within the face simply minutes aside, have been additionally of their early 20s. At 7:05 p.m., a 19-year-old was elbowed within the face at Union Sq.. Twenty minutes later, the person was on East Houston Avenue close to Mott Avenue, the place he elbowed one other girl within the mouth.
The person then headed north to Greenwich Village. The final assault occurred close to Eighth Avenue and Broadway, near New York College, at about 8:40 p.m. The sufferer, 20, was shoved to the bottom earlier than the person fled west.
“There was no prior interplay, and no statements have been made” in any of the incidents, the police mentioned.
The person’s picture was captured by surveillance cameras in a number of areas, and the assaults have been being investigated by the division’s Hate Crime Activity Pressure.
Assaults in opposition to Asian New Yorkers have just lately led to 4 deaths. Yao Pan Ma, a Chinese language immigrant, was overwhelmed as he collected cans in East Harlem in April and died from his accidents on New 12 months’s Eve. Michelle Alyssa Go was pushed to her dying on the Instances Sq. subway station in January. Final month, Christina Yuna Lee was fatally stabbed by a person who adopted her into her Chinatown condominium. And GuiYing Ma, who was attacked as she swept a sidewalk within the Corona neighborhood of Queens in November, died of her accidents final week.
Different latest examples of assaults abound, together with one which focused a Korean diplomat and one other involving an Asian American performer who was on his option to a preview efficiency of “The Chinese language Girl” by the Ma-Yi Theater Firm and the Public Theater.
In a statement final week, the inventive administrators of the 2 corporations, Ralph B. Peña and Oskar Eustis, wrote that the performer’s glasses had been damaged, his eye had been bruised and he had been kicked a number of instances.
“We’re sharing this as a result of the assault on this Asian American artist, which occurred close to Seward Park not removed from the place Christina Yuna Lee was tragically murdered, is one other incident in a protracted historical past of violence in opposition to Asian Individuals,” they mentioned. “The violence and the hatred that fuels it stay disgusting and heartbreaking and have created an atmosphere filled with worry the place security appears scarce for our Asian American neighbors.”
A police spokesman mentioned on Wednesday that the assault on the diplomat was being investigated as a hate crime and that the assault on the performer, who’s 16, had been labeled as a harassment criticism.
Nationwide, Cease AAPI Hate, a coalition of group and tutorial organizations, tracked greater than 10,300 assaults and different incidents focusing on Asian Individuals and Pacific Islanders from March 2020 to September 2021. Surveys have additionally proven that giant numbers of Asian Individuals are petrified of assaults and harassment, impeding the sluggish return to normalcy because the pandemic ebbs.
Metropolis Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, who represents the district the place practically all the assaults on Sunday passed off, said in a statement that she was “equal components devastated and enraged” concerning the occasions.
“Condemnation just isn’t sufficient,” she mentioned.