- Xiao Zhen Xie was attacked by a man, said to be in his 30s, on
San Francisco 's Market Street. - Xie fought back, and the scuffle apparently left the man bloodied and handcuffed to a stretcher.
- Anti-Asian violence has risen in the US recently, including troubling assaults in the Bay Area.
An elderly Asian woman turned the tables on her attacker after being assaulted in downtown San Francisco, picking up an object on the street to defend herself with.
Xiao Zhen Xie, who reports say is either 75 or 76, is said to have been attacked on San Francisco's Market Street while waiting to cross at a traffic light. The police identified her attacker as a 39-year-old man, according to the local outlet KPIX. The suspect's name has not yet been released.
Witnesses said Xie fought back after being punched in the face, picking up a piece of wood she found on the roadside to fend the man off.
The KPIX reporter Dennis O'Donnell posted a video on Twitter that apparently showed the aftermath of the attack. In the video, Xie is seen holding an ice pack to a black eye, while a blond man bleeding from the mouth appears to be handcuffed to a stretcher.
In the video, Xie is heard questioning the man in Cantonese, saying: "You bum, why did you hit me?"
-Dennis O'Donnell (@DennisKPIX) March 17, 2021
According to KPIX, the San Francisco police are also investigating the same suspect in connection to the beating of an 83-year-old Asian man soon before Xie was attacked.
The San Francisco police are investigating the attacks to determine whether they were racially motivated.
Xie and her daughter Dong Mei Li spoke with KPIX about the attack. Li said her mother could not see out of her left eye and had not been able to eat.
Xie's grandson John Chen has also started a GoFundMe page to raise funds for his grandmother's medical treatment and therapy.
"She is now suffering two serious black eyes and one that is bleeding unstoppably," Chen wrote. "Her wrist has also swelled up. She has been severely affected mentally, physically, and emotionally."
Chen added that his grandmother told him she was traumatized and terrified and "afraid to step out of her home from now on."
"I am amazed by her bravery. She was the one that defended herself from this unprovoked attack," he said.
This appears to be the latest in a troubling series of unprovoked attacks on people of Asian descent in the US:
- This week, a string of shootings at spas in metropolitan Atlanta ended in the deaths of eight people, six of whom were Asian women.
- Slate reported that Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, died after he was shoved to the ground in January when he was out taking a walk in San Francisco.
- Two suspects have also been arrested in connection with the killing of Pak Ho, a 75-year-old Asian American man who was violently assaulted when he was out for a morning walk in Oakland.
- NBC News also reported on the case of Danny Yu Chang, a 59-year-old man who also suffered head injuries in an attack near Market Street in San Francisco.
- Separately, Noel Quintana, a 61-year-old Filipino man, was slashed from cheek to cheek with a box cutter on the subway in Manhattan in February.
- The Guardian also reported on an assault on a 91-year-old Asian man in northern California in January, where he was violently shoved to the ground when walking through Oakland's Chinatown.
An article by The Hill noted a significant correlation between the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in reports of hate crimes against
Stop Asian American Pacific Islander Hate, a website that tracks anti-Asian violence, identified 2,800 reported cases of racism and discrimination from March 19, 2020, to December 31 across 47 states and Washington, DC.