A Sri Lankan immigrant attacked on a Manhattan train last week was the victim of an anti-Asian attack, a witness told the Post on Sunday.
Straphanger George Okrepkie, 56, said he was sitting in front of victim Narayange Bodhi, 68, on Friday afternoon, when a man in a felt hat approached the older knight and spat, “You Asian son of a bitch. ! ” and punched him.
“Suddenly, the guy was on top of the elderly man, making a stabbing movement, hitting him in the head,” said Okrepkie. “Within seconds, the blood was spread all over the [victim].
“The attacker jumped off the guy. I tried to grab [the attacker]. I could not. The doors were already opening and he jumped out of the train. I turned my attention to the victim and made a tourniquet to prevent the blood from leaking out of his head, ”said Okrepkie – who used his new Burberry handkerchief to stop the bleeding.
The attacker escaped when the train stopped at Franklin Street station, the witness said.
Okrepkie captured Bodhi’s bloody face in a photograph that has since gone viral.
“I took a picture, just because I wanted to make sure we memorized what was really going on,” he said of the attack and others against Asian Americans. “This is not people being pushed or pushed or [receiving] racial slander – people are being hurt dramatically. “
A NYPD representative told The Post on Sunday that the department has no evidence that the attack was racially motivated.
But Okrepkie, who said he stayed with the victim for 15 minutes until the paramedics and police arrived, told the Post: “I don’t know what the hell you have to do to call this a hate crime.
“I think that Asians today are getting little attention and are a big part of our city. It is a vast group of people. They are Vietnamese, they are Chinese, they are from Korea, Japan. [attacker] didn’t care where the guy was from. [The victim] it just looked Asian. “
New York City is experiencing a wave of attacks against people of Asian descent. Last year, there were 28 of these racially motivated attacks, compared to just two in 2019.
Bodhi could not be reached for comment.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore