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When a Queens woman tried to maneuver away from a passerby not
wearing a mask, he spouted a racist tirade and broke her
cellphone, cops said Monday.

The startling attack, which happened about 11:45 a.m. Sunday, is
the latest in a string of anti-Asian hate crimes related to the
coronavirus pandemic.

"We’ve seen it on the news, but we never thought it would happen
to us,” the 36-year-old victim told the Daily News. "I felt
helpless, really, like, how can this thing be happening?”

The victim, who was wearing a face covering, and her attacker,
who was not, were walking toward each other near Wetherole St.
and 66th Ave. in Rego Park when she noticed his face was bare,
police said.

The victim, who asked that her name not be used, told The News
she was walking home from the grocery store with her wife. The
attacker was walking alongside a woman who also wasn’t wearing a
mask, the victim said.

“We stepped aside for [them] to pass because it was a very
narrow walkway,” said the woman, who works in finance. "I think
he took offense at that. He started screaming racist insults.”

“Are you serious?" he shouted, according to cops. “You stupid b--
-h c--t. You’re the ones that brought the virus here!”

The suspect stood about 10 feet away when the victim said she
turned around and asked what his problem was. That’s when he
charged at her and her wife, pulling items from their cart and
throwing them into the street, she said.

"I was upset because I don’t want him to get away with this. I
follow him and try to take a picture of him. He saw me taking a
picture, he lunged at me again, pushed me, and tried to grab the
phone from my hand,” the victim told The News.

He knocked it from her hand and repeatedly smashed it into the
sidewalk, then picked it up and threw it again, she said.

The bigoted hothead ran west on Wetherole St. Cops recovered
photos of the man from a witness and a nearby security camera
and released them Monday.

"There’s a lot of good community around us,” the woman said,
pointing out that people on the street heard her yells and
called police. “One of the guys actually managed to chase him
and took a picture of him.... Good guy.”

The suspect is described as white with a salt-and-pepper beard
and mustache. He was wearing a white baseball cap, a white
hooded sweater, white sweatpants and white sneakers.

Cops ask anyone with information about the attack to call Crime
Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

So far this year, the NYPD has responded to 14 anti-Asian hate
crimes motivated by the coronavirus. During the same period last
year, the NYPD responded to three anti-Asian hate crimes.

The victim called it ironic her attacker thought she was
Chinese; she’s Malaysian, she said.

“Crazy,” she laughed. “They don’t care.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-anti- asian-hate-crime-queens-cellphone-20200427- vjh6r4bqq5cotj6bdlootjj4qi-story.html
 

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