Police arrested a man in Oakland’s Chinatown last month in connection with three attacks on Asian Americans, CBS San Francisco reported.
Yahya Muslim, 28, was charged with assault, injury, elder abuse and a special charge while on bail, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. The office also said Muslim had two previous convictions of felony assault.
Newly sworn Oakland police chief, LeRonne Armstrong, announced the arrest Monday. Muslim is accused of assaulting a 91-year-old man caught on video on January 31. He is charged with assaulting two other people – a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman – on the same day.
Nancy O’Malley, the Alameda County district attorney, said she is investigating whether the attacks were racially motivated, which could add a hate crime to Muslim allegations. She also announced the creation of a special response unit focused on crimes against Asian Americans, especially elderly Asians.
“It’s not unique to Chinatown or the Asian community that we’ve seen the increase in crime in the city and across the country, but we’ve seen a very specific increase in crimes against Asians in recent weeks and months,” O said. Malley said.
The new unit also comes after another similar attack in the Bay Area. An 84-year-old man from Thailand died after being attacked in San Francisco on January 28. A 19-year-old man was arrested for the man’s murder and elder abuse, the San Francisco prosecutor said.
The recent spate of attacks drew national attention, prompting actors Daniel Wu and Daniel Dae Kim to donate $ 25,000 as a reward to help find the culprit. In an Instagram post showing the attack on the 91-year-old man, Wu commented on the increase in attacks on Asian Americans.
“We need to do more to help the literally thousands of Americans who have suffered from this absolutely senseless violence,” he said. “We have to take a stand and say ‘no more’.” ‘
“Those of us who have been following these issues since the inception of COVID have seen these types of incidents appear in our news feeds almost daily, and yet we see very little being done about it,” Kim told CBSN’s Elaine Quijano on Tuesday.
In the same interview, Wu called on the federal government to partner with community groups that have made combating racism against Asian Americans a priority. “What else the federal government can do is contact community groups that are already in this space and have been doing this work for years, and find out more about how they can help,” Wu said.
Weijia Jiang, senior White House correspondent for CBS News, asked Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki if President Biden had seen the videos.
“I am not aware that he has seen the videos, but he is concerned about the discrimination against, the actions against the Asian-American community. That is why he signed the executive order and has been candid in making it clear. that attacks, verbal attacks are attacks of any form unacceptable, ” Psaki said.
Days after his dedication, Mr. Biden signed an implementing decree reject racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans, particularly targeting anti-Asian animus linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over a three-month period, there were more than 2,120 hate crime incidents or crimes reported by Asian Americans between March and June last year, according to the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council and Chinese for Affirmative Action. There is an increase of almost 845% compared to all reported cases in 2017, 2018 and 2019 combined. The country’s tone was reinforced by former President Donald Trump, who referred to the virus as “Kung Flu” or the “Chinese Virus”.
Separately, community organizers in Oakland have set up a fund to have armed private security in Chinatown. As of Tuesday, it has more than $ 62,000 in donations.
Alvin Patrick and Caitlin Yilek contributed to this report.