NYPD, social media users search for violent anti-Asian attacker in Flushing
/
Actress Olivia Munn shared an image of a man who allegedly shoved her friend’s mother, sending the woman to the hospital Tuesday. Photo via Olivia Munn/Instagram
By David Brand
NYPD officers and everyday social media users are searching for a Flushing assailant who yelled racial slurs at a 52-year-old Asian woman before throwing her to the ground and sending her to the hospital Tuesday.
The unidentified attacker shoved the woman to the concrete while she was waiting on line outside the New Flushing Bakery near the corner of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue Tuesday afternoon, police said. She struck her head “against an object” and was taken to a hospital, a police spokesperson added.
The victim’s daughter, Maggie Kaylie Cheng, posted an image of the man and a description of the attack on Facebook and Instagram Tuesday. She later posted surveillance footage of the attack and asked for the public’s help identifying the man.
“I am heart broken and devastated,” Cheng wrote. “This douchebag was yelling out racial slurs, walks into my mom and shoved my mother on Main street and Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens today.”
Cheng said her mother slammed her head against the concrete and needed 5 to 10 stitches in her forehead.
“Hate crime has no place in our community,” she said. “How you go up against a 5'3 110-115 lbs lady? How no one holds this person down on Main street is another question. Especially in an asian community.”
Police said they are still searching for the attacker.
Anti-Asian hate crimes surged last year, accounting for 10 percent of all bias crimes in New York City, THE CITY reported earlier this month. The NYPD recorded nine times as many anti-Asian bias crimes in 2020 than in the previous year — 27 last year compared to three in 2019.
Cheng’s post has been shared widely on social media, generating thousands of views and expressions of support from everyday New Yorkers. Actress Olivia Munn, a friend of Cheng, also posted photos of the man, further amplifying the call for the community’s help.
“These racist hate crimes against our elders have got to stop,” Munn wrote. “We’re gonna find this guy. Queens, Internet, please... do your shit.”
