Brandon Elliot NYC man charged with hate crime in the beating of 65-year-old Filipina woman. Rising incidence of Asian hate crime in the US.
A man seen in surveillance video viciously assaulting a 65-year-old Filipina woman near NYC‘s Times Square was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday morning according to police.
Brandon Elliot, 38, was detained by NYPD cops at 2am on Wednesday after CCTV footage of the man violently kicking the elderly woman in the stomach drew widespread condemnation and sparked a police manhunt.
Elliot is currently on lifetime parole after murdering his own mother in 2002 when he was 19 according to online court records. The man was released from prison in 2019, according to NBC New York.
He lives in a Manhattan hotel serving as a homeless shelter near where Monday’s attack took place and has been charged with felony assault as a hate crime.
The victim was on her way to church in Midtown when she was pushed to the ground and kicked in the head and stomach late Monday morning. At the time of the assault, Elliot had hurled anti-Asian sentiments at the woman.
Here is graphic video of the assault on the older Asian woman by a black male suspect in NYC. The building security who witnessed the attack did not help her. They closed the door. pic.twitter.com/F8DesENSCu
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) March 30, 2021
‘F*** you, you don’t belong here.’
The victim had been walking towards the suspect in the moments before he attacked her when he reportedly told her: ‘F*** you, you don’t belong here.’
Surveillance video from inside the building captured images of the assault, showing a man kicking and stomping on the woman multiple times.
The woman was taken to NYU Langone Hospital in stable condition having suffered a fractured pelvis.
Surveillance footage also shows two security guards watch the attack unfold and fail to intervene.
The pair have been suspended from work, the Brodsky Organization, the management company for the building, announced on Tuesday.
In a Facebook post, the group condemned Monday’s attack, posting, ‘… we condemn all forms of discrimination, racism, xenophobia and violence against the Asian American community.’
The NYPD had offered a $2,500 reward for any information on the suspect.
38-year-old Brandon Elliot arrested and charged with Attempted Assault as a Hate Crime & Assault as a Hate Crime. He was arrested July 2002 for fatally stabbing his mother when he was 19 in the Bronx. After serving 17 years in state prison, he was released on lifetime parole 1/2 https://t.co/DjeDu4RpO4
— CeFaan Kim (@CeFaanKim) March 31, 2021
‘…you’ve got to help your fellow New Yorker,’
The incident led to Mayor Bill de Blasio condemning the attack and the lack of effort by bystanders who did little to assist the woman.
‘I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what you do, you’ve got to help your fellow New Yorker,’ de Blasio said Tuesday at his daily news briefing.
‘If you see someone being attacked, do whatever you can. Make noise. Call out what’s happening. Go and try and help. Immediately call for help. Call 911.
‘This is something where we all have to be part of the solution. We can’t just stand back and watch a heinous act happening.’
The victim ‘could easily have been my mother,’ said Andrew Yang, a mayoral candidate and the son of Taiwanese immigrants. Yang also called bystanders’ apparent inaction ‘exactly the opposite of what we need here in New York City.’
The attack comes amid a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes. The NYPD says there have been 33 hate crimes with an Asian victim so far this year.
Spike in Asian hate crime
According to a report from Stop AAPI Hate over 3,795 incidents were reported to the organization from March 19, 2020, to February 28, 2021. The organization said that number is ‘only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur.’
Though overall hate crimes decreased by 7% in 16 major US cities in 2020, anti-Asian hate crimes increased 149%, first spiking in March and April when COVID-19 began its spread, according to California State University’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
Women reported attacks at more than twice the rate of men, and Chinese Americans numbered over 42% of the victims.
