A man from New York City was arrested and charged Tuesday for the attempted murder of a middle-aged Chinese immigrant, one in a long series of recent racially-motivated hate crimes against Asian Americans.
61-year-old baker Yao Pan Ma has been in critical condition since April 23 when a man knocked him over from behind and then delivered several hard kicks to his head before fleeing, surveillance camera footage released by the police showed.
Authorities have charged Jarrod Powell, 49, from New York with two counts of felony assault and one count of attempted murder.
Ma arrived in the U.S. about two years ago with his wife, People Magazine reported. He is now in a medically induced coma at Harlem Hospital as doctors assess the damage wrought by the attack.
Hate crimes targeting people of Asian descent are on the rise across the United States.
Last month six Asian women were killed after a young man went on a shooting spree in Asian-owned spas around Atlanta, while in early April an elderly Chinese woman was set on fire by two people in New York.
“There is an intersectional dynamic going on that others may perceive both Asians and women and Asian women as easier targets,” Russell Jeung, professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, said.
Violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders rose 145% in 2020 despite racially motivated hate crimes as a whole dropping slightly in the country, a recent California State University study found.
Many attribute the rise in attacks against people of Asian descent to the ongoing COVID pandemic’s Chinese origins and as the virus first started appearing in the U.S. last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned to prepare for a surge of related hate crimes.
The novel coronavirus which appeared in Wuhan, China in late 2019 before spreading around the world has a number of derogatory monikers, including the term “kung flu” popularized by former president Donald Trump.
