Man arrested in attack on Asian American woman
NEW YORK — A parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago was arrested on charges, including felony assault as a hate crime, in an attack on an Asian American woman in New York City, police said early Wednesday.
Police said Brandon Elliot, 38, is the man seen on surveillance video kicking and stomping the woman near Times Square on Monday. They said Elliot was living at a hotel that serves as a homeless shelter a few blocks from the scene of the attack. He was taken into custody at the hotel around midnight. Tips from the public led to his apprehension, police said.
Elliot was convicted of stabbing his mother to death in the Bronx in 2002, when he was 19. He was released from prison in 2019 and is on lifetime parole. The parole board had previously twice denied his release. His record also included an arrest for robbery in 2000.
Elliot, who is Black, faces charges of assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, assault and attempted assault in Monday’s attack, police said.
The victim was identified as Vilma Kari, a 65yearold woman who emigrated from the Philippines, her daughter told the New York Times; the newspaper did not identify Kari’s daughter by name.
Kari was walking to church in midtown Manhattan when police said a man kicked her in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, stomped on her face, shouted antiAsian slurs and told her, “You don’t belong here” before casually walking away as onlookers watched.
She was discharged from the hospital Tuesday after being treated for serious injuries, a hospital spokesperson said.
The attack happened just weeks after a mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent, and just a few days after a 65yearold Asian American woman in the same midtown Manhattan neighborhood was threatened and heckled with antiAsian slurs.
The surge in violence has been linked in part to misplaced blame for the coronavirus pandemic and former President Donald Trump’s use of terms like “Chinese virus.”