Anh Taylor San Francisco 94 year old Asian woman stabbed by Daniel Cauich recently released burglary suspect in potential hate crime incident.
‘Why Would Something Like This Happen To Me?’– these are the words an elderly Asian woman uttered from her hospital bed after surviving a stabbing attack at the hands of a man who had recently been released from prison in San Francisco according to reports.
Police officers were called to the scene in the Tenderloin district around 10.15am, Wednesday where they found Anh Taylor, 95, with multiple stabbing wounds, according to San Francisco Police Department.
She was treated at the scene before being taken to hospital where she underwent surgeries to wounds on her wrist and torso. She was also hit in the head. Taylor is in stable condition, CBS5 reported.
Police arrested Daniel Cauich, 35, just over an hour after they circulated a photo of him taken from surveillance video following the attack. At the time of his arrest, the suspect was wearing an ankle monitor.
Authorities also recovered a knife in the area the suspect used to attack Taylor.
‘Why Would Something Like This Happen To Me?’ 94-Year-Old Anh ‘Peng’ Taylor Recovering After Shocking SF Stabbing Attack
Details emerge regarding suspect Daniel Cauich, who has a long criminal history. @KPIXtv https://t.co/Rm8IsvptO8 pic.twitter.com/hW5i7jiAHm
— Betty Yu (@BettyKPIX) June 17, 2021
Suspect previous history
Of note, the attack occurred just 9 days after Cauich had been released from jail following an arrest for suspected burglary.
Taylor, who is from China and Vietnam, has lived in the area for more than 40 years and is the widow of a US veteran.
Taylor’s neighbor, Miranda Benvenuti, told NBC News the victim is kind, generous, strong, sweet and independent person.
Cauich now faces charges of attempted homicide, battery with serious injuries, elder abuse, committing a felony while on bail or release, great bodily injury enhancement and probation violation, police said.
While no motive was established as to why Cauich stabbed Anh Taylor, the incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Cauich was released from jail after he was arrested on May 18 on burglary charges. The man was let go due to lack of evidence according to court records, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
He was previously arrested on charges of deadly stabbing, but a judge dismissed the case in 2019 due to lack of evidence, ABC 7 reported.
Ongoing incidence of hate crimes against Asian Americans
Wednesday’s incident comes amid a surge in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans and Asians living in the United States.
An analysis of hate crime data in late April revealed that the increase in anti-Asian attacks has remained consistent.
Anti-Asian hate crime reported to police in 15 of America’s largest cities and counties, rose 169%, from 32 to 86, in the first quarter of 2021 in comparison to the first quarter of 2020, according to an analysis of official preliminary data by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism (CSHE) at California State University, San Bernardino.
For instance, Asians form 35% of San Francisco’s population. In the first quarter of 2020, the number of reported hate crimes went from five to 12 which is an increase of 169%.
Similarly, 14.5% of New Yorkers are Asian. The number of filed reports went up from 13 to 42 which leads to a total of 223%.
At least 11.6% Angelenos in Greater Los Angeles Area are Asians. The number of cases has gone up from five to nine which is about 80% increase. In Boston, Asians form about 9.7% of Bostonians. Their number of reported crimes has also gone up from five to eight which is about 60%.
While no real reason is known as to what has led to heightened crimes against Asians and Asian Americans, the spike comes amid ongoing hostility towards China which is blamed for the coronavirus along with general antipathy unleashed by former President Trump towards China and Asians.
