NEW YORK – A man who previously served years in prison for the murder of his own mother has been arrested in connection with the ruthless attack on a 65-year-old Asian woman near Times Square, authorities said.
Police said Brandon Elliot, 38, was on life probation for murdering his mother in 2002.
Police charged Elliot with assault and hate crimes after officers covered the downtown Manhattan neighborhood with “wanted” signs bearing his photo. They had offered a $ 2,500 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of the man seen in surveillance video Monday brutalizing the woman as she walked to church.
Elliot was released from prison in 2019 after serving a sentence for murdering his mother 17 years earlier, according to a NYPD spokesperson. A hearing date for his latest charges has not yet been determined, police said. The lawyer’s information about him in the new case was not immediately clear.
Monday’s attacks set off alarms across the country as officials lashed out at passersby in the immediate vicinity for doing nothing to stop Elliot, while forcefully attacking the woman and yelling anti-Asian insults, including: “You don’t belong here. “.
The woman, who was identified by law enforcement sources as Vilma Kari, who was released from the hospital on Tuesday after being treated for serious injuries, a hospital spokesman said.
Monday’s attack was one of the latest in a nationwide surge in hate crimes against Asians, and it came just weeks after a mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent. The rise in violence has been linked in part to mistaken blame for the coronavirus and former President Donald Trump’s use of racially charged terms such as “Chinese virus.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called Monday’s attack “absolutely disgusting and outrageous.” He said it was “absolutely unacceptable” for witnesses not to intervene.
“I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what you do, you have to help your fellow New Yorker,” De Blasio said, evoking the post-9/11 mantra of “see something, say something.”
The attack occurred late Monday morning in front of an apartment building two blocks from Times Square, a bustling and heavily guarded section of downtown Manhattan.
Two workers inside the building who appeared to be security guards were seen on surveillance video witnessing the attack but not coming to the woman’s aid. One of them was seen closing the door of the building while the woman was on the ground. The attacker was able to casually walk away while onlookers watched, the video showed.
The building’s management company said they were suspended pending an investigation. The workers union said they asked for help immediately.
“If you see someone being attacked, do everything you can,” De Blasio said. “Make noise. Say what’s happening. Go and try to help. Call right away for help. Call 911. This is something we all need to be part of the solution to. We can’t just step back and see a heinous act happen. ”
Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, said the victim “could easily have been my mother.” He also criticized bystanders, saying their inaction was “the exact opposite of what we need here in New York City.”
This year in New York City there have been 33 hate crimes involving an Asian victim as of Sunday, police said. There were 11 such attacks at the same time last year.
On Friday, in the same neighborhood where Monday’s attack took place, a 65-year-old Asian-American woman was accosted by a man waving an unknown object and yelling anti-Asian insults. A 48-year-old man was arrested the next day and charged with threatening. He is not suspected of in Monday’s attack.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force has asked anyone with information to contact the department’s confidential hotline or submit suggestions online.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced last week that the department would increase outreach and patrols in predominantly Asian communities, including using undercover officers to prevent and disrupt attacks.
The neighborhood where Monday’s attack occurred, Hell’s Kitchen, is predominantly white, with an Asian population of less than 20%, according to city demographics.
Shea called Monday’s attack “disgusting” and told NY1 television station: “I don’t know who attacks a 65-year-old woman and leaves her on the street like this.”
According to a report by Stop AAPI Hate, more than 3,795 incidents were reported to the organization from March 19, 2020 to February 28. The group, which tracks incidents of discrimination, hatred and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US, said the number is “only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur.”