Building Workers Who Didn't Help Asian Woman Being Attacked Suspended After Video Surfaces

After video of an elderly Asian woman being attacked and beaten by an unidentified man in New York City went viral online, building workers who saw the incident but did nothing to intervene have reportedly been suspended.

The 65-year-old victim of the attack—which took place in front of 360 West 43rd Street in Manhattan—was punched and then kicked several times after she fell to the ground, authorities have said. Video of the violent encounter has been circulated widely online, showing the tall man approaching the much smaller woman before he punches her and proceeds to stomp on her while she lays on the ground.

The woman has been hospitalized and her injuries are reportedly serious. The New York Police Department's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident.

"This is a heinous attack on a 65 year old Asian lady that occurred this morning in front of 360 west 43rd street. The cold hearted building security guard not only failed to render aid, he closed the door on the victim," the NYPD Asian Hate Crimes Task Force said in a Tuesday tweet, which has since been deleted.

NY1 reported that people working for the building who did nothing to help have been suspended. Police are urging the public to help them identify the man who perpetrated the assault. Anyone with information can call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

"I don't know who attacks a 65-year-old woman and leaves her on the street like that," Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, calling the Monday attack "disgusting."

The incident occurred as national attention has been focused on hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans in the wake of the mass shooting in the Atlanta area on March 16. Although authorities are still investigating the attack, six of the eight victims killed in massage parlors targeted by the attacker were Asian women.

Already, many lawmakers and activists had been sounding the alarm over an uptick in racist attacks and verbal assaults targeting Asian-Americans since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China. Some conservative commentators and lawmakers, including former President Donald Trump, routinely referred to the outbreak as the "China virus" or used other racially charged descriptions. Activists say this put a target on the back of Asian-Americans.

A recent report from Stop AAPI Hate documented 3,795 incidents of anti-Asian hate crimes from March 19, 2020, to February 28, 2021. The nonprofit, which tracks incidents of discrimination, hate and xenophobia against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S., said this likely represented only "a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur."

This article has been updated with further information and background.