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There was no indication that the shooter knew any of the seven victims, two of whom were treated at local hospitals. Police charged Manhattan man Steven Zajonc with seven counts of assault and attempted assault classified as hate crimes and seven counts of aggravated stalking and harassment that were not classified as hate crimes.
Mr. Zajonc was arrested outside a public library in Midtown on Wednesday afternoon, a police spokesman said. Police said the man, a native of Florida, refused to make a statement after his arrest Wednesday night.
Attack
The first attack took place around 6:30 p.m. Sunday around 30th Street and Madison Avenue, when the man approached a 57-year-old woman and wordlessly punched her in the face, police said. Ten minutes later and a block to the west, the nightmare repeated itself. The second victim was 25 years old.
All attacks followed the same template as the assailant headed south. The next two victims, struck in the face just minutes apart, were also in their early 20s. At 7:05 p.m. m., a 19-year-old was elbowed in the face in Union Square. Twenty minutes later, the man was on East Houston Street near Mott Street, where he elbowed another woman in the mouth.
The man then headed north to Greenwich Village. The latest attack occurred near Eighth Street and Broadway near New York University around 8:40 p.m. The 20-year-old victim was pushed to the ground before the man fled west.
“There was no prior interaction and no statements were made” in either incident, police said.
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Investigation
The image of the man was captured by surveillance cameras at various locations, and the attacks were being investigated by the department’s Hate Crimes Task Force.
Violence against Asians in the city has skyrocketed during the pandemic; police recorded 131 anti-Asian bias incidents in 2021, up from 28 in 2020 and just three in 2019. Advocates warn that incidents are not always reported to police or classified as hate crimes, making it difficult to grasp the true story. degree to which Asians are being targeted.
statement
In a statement last week, the artistic directors of the two companies, Ralph B. Peña and Oskar Eustis, wrote that the performer’s glasses had been broken, his eye had been bruised and he had been kicked several times.
“We share this because the attack on this Asian American artist, which occurred near Seward Park, not far from where Christina Yuna Lee was tragically killed, is another incident in a long history of violence against Asian Americans,” they said. “The violence and the hate that fuels it remain sickening and heartbreaking and have created an environment filled with fear where safety seems in short supply for our Asian-American neighbors.”
A police spokesman said on Wednesday that the attack on the diplomat was being investigated as a hate crime and that the attack on the 16-year-old artist had been classified as an allegation of harassment.
Nationwide, Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition of community and academic organizations, tracked more than 10,300 attacks and other incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders from March 2020 through September 2021. Surveys have also shown that large numbers of Asian Americans they fear attacks and harassment, preventing the slow return to normality as the pandemic subsides.
Source: https://wikisoon.com/