Hate crime adds to charges filed in shop attack
Amid a rising wave of violence against Asian Americans, a Harris County grand jury has indicted a woman on a hate crime charge in an attack last month involving the Korean owner of a beauty supply shop.
The indictment on a misdemeanor assault charge handed up Thursday accuses Keaundra Young, 24, of punching the owner of Uptown Beauty Supply on March 17 at the north Houston store. The jurors determined racial bias precipitated the attack against Jung Kim, 59, according to Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.
Young already faces a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after authorities said she tried to ram her car into Kim’s husband in the parking lot before peeling away.
Young could be sentenced to up to a year in jail if she’s convicted on the enhanced misdemeanor charge.
Jonathan Stephenson, her attorney on the felony charge, said he wasn’t aware of Young getting a lawyer yet in the hate crime case. Stephenson said she faces up to 20 years on the aggravated assault involving the car.
“We’re still evaluating it and we look forward to having our day in court,” he said.
Daquiesha Rachel Williams, 22, is also charged with misdemeanor assault based on allegations she scratched the couple’s 29year-old son, Sunjun Lee. The DA did not seek to prosecute her for a hate crime.
Both women were initially charged in late March.
Reached at the beauty shop Friday, the owners’ son said he and his mother are recovering from their injuries and the shock of the attack. He said a doctor told him he might need laser surgery for the wound on his face. The blows broke his mother’s nose, he previously said.
The family has been overwhelmed with the kindness of their customers who, like their employees, are mostly Black. Many have told them they’re praying for them. Koreanowned beauty supply shops are fairly prolific in
predominantly Black neighborhoods in most major U.S. cities.
The son’s response to the hate crime charge was, “I don’t feel happy or sad. … I just want them to get a punishment.” He said he didn’t want them to get more or less of a sentence than they deserved.
The incident began when Kim tried to pick up wigs customers had knocked to the floor, the son said. His mother told them not to worry about it.
But the women cursed at her and said Asian people should not be selling wigs to Black people and used racist language, victims said. They also said the business stole their money, the owners’ son said.
Kim, who is a Korean national, asked the pair to leave, prompting the physical violence, her son said.
Houston police reported 29 hate crimes in 2019, with 13 of those stemming from racial biases. Since January 2020, the DA has filed about a dozen cases, a spokesperson said. About half of those are pending.
Houston police didn’t initially investigate the altercation as a hate crime. Patrol officers at the scene did not make note of any racial slurs used during the attack in their offense report, which spokesperson Jodi Silva said “may have been an oversight.”
The family has hired a security guard to stand outside their two-year-old business.
“Houston is a place where people look out for each other, where neighbors help neighbors,” Ogg said. “Allegations like this, where someone would attack and terrorize another person because of their race is counter to the cultural diversity we embrace.”