PICTURED: 61-year-old Asian man in critical condition and in a coma after he endured a brutal curb stomping in NYC while collecting cans
- Yao Pan Ma, 61, was left in critical condition after the unidentified attacker stomped on his head at least six times in Harlem Friday evening.
- A photo of Ma in the hospital shows the aftermath of brutal attack that he endured
- After losing his job as a kitchen worker when the coronavirus pandemic began, Ma resorted to picking up recyclables for income
- Ma was minding his own business and pushing his cart when he was attacked from behind, according to a witness
- A GoFundMe was set up to raise money for his medical bills and to support his family. The goal is $150,000
- Police released images of the suspect, who is still on the loose as of Monday evening
A photo from the hospital room of a 61-year-old Asian man, who was nearly stomped to death in New York City late last week, shows the aftermath of the attack.
Yao Pan Ma was left in critical condition and placed in a medically induced coma after an unidentified attacker stomped on his head at least six times.
Police sources told the New York Post that Ma suffered a cerebral contusion and facial fractures, and the photo shows him hooked up to medical gear in the hospital.
‘When I saw him in the hospital … his face, I cried. I still cry,’ his wife Baozhen Chen told the outlet on Saturday. ‘I hope he wakes up and talks to me and gets better and comes home. It’s really hard to believe.’
A GoFundMe was set up by Pam Yang, a Chinese-American NYC native, to raise money for his medical bills and to support his family.
As of 4 p.m. Monday, the online fundraiser raised just under $100,000, about $50,000 short of its goal.
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Police sources told the New York Post that Ma suffered a cerebral contusion and facial fractures – and a photo Chen provided the outlet shows him hooked up to medical gear in the hospital.
Yao Pan Ma and his wife Baozhen Chen Ma, who have two adult children, moved to New York from China’s Guangdong province in 2019.
Ma was pushing his cart and collecting recyclables in Harlem to help his family make ends meet after losing his job as a dishwasher during the coronavirus pandemic.
Ma was ‘minding his business with his shopping cart,’ witness Armetha Knight, 37, told the New York Daily News, before a man came up behind him, knocked him over, kicked him in the head at least six times and then walked away.
Ma and his wife, who have two adult children, moved to New York from China’s Guangdong province in 2019 looking for better work opportunities, Chen told the Daily News.
The entire attack was caught on video, and the NYPD said it’s investigating the assault as a potential hate crime.
No arrests have been made as of Monday evening. Police released photos of the suspect.
The horrific video shows the suspect slamming his foot down on Ma’s head while his shopping cart full of recyclables sits nearby
The attacker was then seen casually walking away and no arrests had been made as of late Monday afternoon.
The assault on Ma is just a recent example in an alarming spike anti-Asian hate crimes that first started in at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March and April 2020.
A report from the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that anti‐Asian hate crimes surged 149 percent while overall hate crime dropped 7 percent in 2020.
The report indicated that the rise in anti-Asian crimes was attributed to ‘a rise in COVID cases and negative stereotyping of Asians relating to the pandemic.’
Former President Donald Trump repeatedly called COVID-19 the ‘Chinese virus,’ which some have charged led to the increased vitriol against Asians.
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