NYC police released this surveillance camera image of the suspect in a brutal unprovoked attack on an Asian American woman near Times Square. Screenshot / NYPD via AP
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
A vicious attack on an Asian-American woman near New York City's Times Square is drawing widespread condemnation and raising alarms about the failure of bystanders to intervene amid a rash of anti-Asian violence across the US.
A lone assailant was seen on surveillance video on Monday (Tuesday NZT) kicking the woman, 65, in the stomach, knocking her to the ground and stomping on her face, all as police say he shouted anti-Asian slurs at her.
Here is graphic video of the assault on the older Asian woman by a black male suspect in NYC. The building security who witnessed the attack did not help her. They closed the door. pic.twitter.com/F8DesENSCu
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) March 30, 2021
The attack happened outside an apartment building two blocks from Times Square, a bustling, heavily policed section of midtown Manhattan known as the "Crossroads of the World".
Two workers inside the building who appeared to be security guards were seen on the video but failed to come to the woman's aid. Their union said they called for help immediately. The attacker was able to casually walk away while onlookers watched, the video showed.
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio called the video of the attack "absolutely disgusting and outrageous" and said it was "absolutely unacceptable" that witnesses did not intervene.
"I don't care who you are, I don't care what you do, you've got to help your fellow New Yorker," de Blasio said Tuesday at his daily news briefing.
"If you see someone being attacked, do whatever you can," he said. "Make noise. Call out what's happening. Go and try and help. Immediately call for help. Call 911. This is something where we all have to be part of the solution. We can't just stand back and watch a heinous act happening."
The attack comes amid a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, and happened just weeks after a mass shooting in Atlanta that killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent.
The surge in violence has been linked in part to misplaced blame for the coronavirus and former President Donald Trump's use of racially charged terms like "Chinese virus".
This year in New York City there have been 33 hate crimes with an Asian victim as of Sunday, police said. There were 11 such attacks by the same time last year.
On Friday, in the same neighbourhood as Monday's attack, a 65-year-old Asian American woman was accosted by a man waving an unknown object and shouting anti-Asian insults. A 48-year-old man was arrested the next day and charged with menacing. He is not suspected in Monday's attack.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called Monday's attack "horrifying and repugnant" and ordered a state police hate crimes task force to offer its assistance to the NYPD. No arrests have been made.
The NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force, which is investigating the attack, released surveillance video of the attack and photographs of the suspect on Monday evening and asked anyone with information to contact the department's confidential hot line or submit tips online.
The woman attacked on Monday was hospitalised with serious injuries. She was in a stable condition on Tuesday, a hospital spokesperson said.
According to video footage of the assault, two people who appeared to be security guards walked into the frame and one of them closed the building door as the woman was on the ground.
The property developer and manager of the building, Brodsky Organization, wrote on Instagram that it was aware of the assault and said staff members who witnessed it were suspended pending an investigation.
The head of the union representing building workers disputed allegations that the door staff failed to act. He said the union has information that they called for help immediately.
"Our union is working to get further details for a more complete account, and urges the public to avoid a rush to judgment while the facts are determined," SEIU 32BJ President Kyle Bragg said. He condemned the attack as "yet another example of the unbridled hate and terror" against Asian-Americans.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced last week that the department would increase outreach and patrols in predominantly Asian communities, including the use of undercover officers to prevent and disrupt attacks.
The neighbourhood where Monday's attack occurred, Hell's Kitchen, is predominantly white, with an Asian population of less than 20 per cent, according to city demographic data.
Shea called Monday's attack "disgusting", telling TV station NY1: "I don't know who attacks a 65-year-old woman and leaves her on the street like that."
According to a report from Stop AAPI Hate, more than 3795 incidents were reported to the organisation from March 19, 2020, to February 28.
The group, which tracks discrimination, hate and xenophobia against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US, said that number is "only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur".