New York police hunt attacker who stomped on Chinese-American man’s head
- Victim was collecting cans when he was attacked from behind in East Harlem
- New York mayor called attack ‘outrageous’, vows perpetrator will be found
A 61-year-old Chinese-American man was attacked by a man who kicked him repeatedly in the head in East Harlem, police said.
The man was collecting cans when he was attacked from behind, knocked to the ground and kicked in the head on Friday. He was taken to Harlem Hospital in critical but stable condition, police said.
Surveillance video released by the police appears to show the attacker stomping on the victim’s head. The police department’s hate crimes task force is investigating the attack, the latest in a troubling rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in New York and around the country.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called the assault “outrageous” on Twitter. “Make no mistake, we will find the perpetrator and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” de Blasio said on Saturday.
The attack recalled last month’s assault near Times Square in which a woman who immigrated from the Philippines was knocked to the ground and stomped on by an attacker who shouted anti-Asian slurs. A parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago was arrested in that attack.
