An Asian man was beaten in the Lower East Side by a homeless man who spewed obscenities in an unprovoked attack that the NYPD sees as a possible hate crime, police said.
The unsuspecting victim parked his car in front of 196 Allen St., near Houston Street, around 9 a.m. and checked to see if he was in a legal place when the attack occurred, a NYPD spokesman said.
There was a language barrier, but the victim told police he had heard the attacker say the word “Chinese” several times, police said.
The attacker ran down Allen Street.
The NYPD spokesperson said the incident is considered a possible hate crime, and the NYPD Asian Hate Crimes Task Force is now investigating. A police source said police believe the attacker was homeless because he was carrying a blanket.
Kat Lam, 30, told The Post she was getting her morning coffee with her roommate on Allen’s corner between Stanton and Houston Streets when she witnessed the incident’s end.
Lam described the attacker as tall and slim, in his mid to late twenties, wearing a brown sweatshirt and a blanket.
“The homeless man started running after the older gentleman, saying things like, ‘If I ever see you here again, I’m going to beat you up.’ And, “I’m just going to beat you up now,” Lam recalled. “He just hit him right in the face, right above his eye. You could tell this older man was in complete shock. He was just frozen. “
The attacker ran when he realized there were witnesses, Lam said.
Police responded “very quickly” to the incident, Lam said, adding that the attack was “just completely unfounded.”
“It was hard not to get emotional because he looked just like my dad,” she said through tears.
The attack came the morning after Mayor de Blasio was harassed and overrun by protesters during a Union Square vigil held to protest anti-Asian racism and the victims of the Georgia massage parlor shootings.
The NYPD has registered a 1,300 percent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes during the coronavirus pandemic and has ramped up patrols in Asian neighborhoods following the massage parlor murders.