Daly City police: 69-year-old Asian woman attacked, robbed

DALY CITY >> A 69-year-old Asian woman was attacked and thrown to the ground Thursday afternoon during what police described as a strong-arm robbery, one of the latest in a wave of attacks on Asian Americans that have stirred fear, outrage and organizing.

Around 3:40 p.m., the woman was walking in the area of Serravista and Norwood avenues, according to Sgt. Mario Busalacchi, when a man ran up from behind and began pulling bags and belongings away from the woman.

“The guy forced her to the ground and was able to get away with some of her property,” Busalacchi said.

Video captured by a nearby surveillance camera shared with NBC Bay Area shows a man sprinting up behind the woman and grabbing at her belongings, and flinging her from the sidewalk onto the street.

He then begins to leave when he drops an item and goes back to the woman to apparently take something else, before running away in the opposite direction. The woman gets up and waves her arms in the air, seemingly calling for help.

Busalacchi said the woman suffered minor injuries in the attack.

Daly City police said they have seen several robberies between March 10 and last weekend, including one in which a woman said she was tackled to the ground and punched four times in the back of the head.

On Monday, police issued a warning to be aware of similar “street type robberies” that had occurred, in which suspects drove up to individual women walking in the city and confronted them, taking their purses or backpacks and fleeing in the car.

“We’re following up on other leads outside of just surveillance footage, and we’re proactively taking the lead in pursuing the suspects in these crimes,” Busalacchi said.

A spate of attacks across the country and in the Bay Area has shaken the sense of safety and belonging for some Asian Americans, and local and national politicians, as well as residents, have called for an end to anti-asian hate.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke about the issue in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Friday and linked the recent attacks to a century and a half of racist policies in the country.

Assemblymember David Chiu, D-san Francisco, said he plans to introduce a bill asking the state Department of Justice to track “hate incidents,” racially motivated attacks that may not clear the legal bar of a hate crime.

“We know there are thousands of incidents that are occurring every day that are absolutely wrong,” Chiu said.

Police said anyone with information about Thursday’s attack in Daly City can contact Detective Soyangco at 650-991-8183.