Suspect arrested in Flushing attack that sent woman to hospital

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Police arrested a suspect they say shoved a woman to the ground in Flushing Tuesday. Photo via Olivia Munn/Instagram

Police arrested a suspect they say shoved a woman to the ground in Flushing Tuesday. Photo via Olivia Munn/Instagram

By David Brand

Police on Thursday said they arrested a man seen on video shoving a 52-year-old woman to the ground in Flushing in an attack the victim’s family and supporters called an anti-Asian hate crime.

Patrick Mateo, 47, was arrested shortly after 8 a.m. after photos and videos of the attack fueled a social media manhunt Wednesday. Mateo is charged with assault and harassment, but has not been charged with bias offenses. An NYPD spokesperson said he has no prior arrests.

Mateo pushed the woman 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 Mateo.

“I am heart broken and devastated,” Cheng wrote Tuesday. “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 a post 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.”

The NYPD referred questions about hate crime charges to the Queens District Attorney’s Office. Queens DA Melinda Katz did not respond to an email and phone call seeking comment. 

Mateo had not yet been arraigned as of 11:15 a.m. Thursday.

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 was 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.”