Home

Yao Pan Ma had lost his job and was collecting cans to make ends meet

A 61-year-old Asian American man was brutally attacked in Harlem.

The man, identified as Yao Pan Ma, was attacked from behind and knocked to the ground at around 8pm on Friday 23 April.

His attacker repeatedly stomped on his head as he lay on the ground.

Ma was a restaurant worker who lost his job due to the Coronavirus pandemic. He was collecting cans prior to the attack in order to make ends meet.

New York PDt’s hate crimes task force is investigating the attack.

The victim’s wife, Baozhen Chen, 57, pleaded for police to find her husband’s attacker.

“Please capture him as soon as possible and make him pay,” Chen said.

New York City 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 Saturday.

Governor Andrew Cuomo also expressed his outrage on Sunday.

“I’m sickened to learn of yet another bigoted act of violence against an Asian American man,” the governor said in a statement.

“This is not who we are as New Yorkers, and we will not let these cowardly acts of hate against members of our New York family intimidate us.”

There has been a recent rise in attacks on Asians across America. In response, a Brooklyn woman is giving out free safety alarms to Asian Americans in New York City.

Recent attacks across the country include an Asian woman who was hit in the face in Philadelphia.

In California, a Vietnamese family was tied up in their own home by robbers who stole their entire life savings in Oakland, California.

Also in California, an elderly Asian American woman was kicked in the face by a suspect who was on parole for fatally stabbing his mother.

Elsewhere, a firefighter who attacked an Asian American man claims he was drugged before the attack.

Additionally, the man who harassed Olympian Sakura Kokumai has been arrested for attacking a senior Korean couple.

Most recently, a cup of urine with racist anti-Chinese messages was left on a Japanese American woman’s car in California.