A man was arrested in connection with a brutal attack on an elderly Asian American woman in White Plains, New York, police said on Friday.
Nancy Toh, 83, was spit and punched near the Westchester shopping center on Tuesday, police said. It hit the ground hard enough to “pass out momentarily,” White Plains police captain James Spencer said in a statement.
Toh’s face and hip were injured and she possibly suffered a concussion, he said.
She reported the attack on Wednesday, Spencer said, adding that the police focused on Glenmore Nembhard, 40, as a suspect and found him in the area on Thursday.
He was arrested and charged by the Westchester County Public Prosecutor’s Office for second-degree criminal assault with the intent of causing physical harm to a person 65 years of age or older, spokesman Dan Weiller said in an email. .
The Westchester County Legal Aid Society, which deals with the region’s public defenders, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to prison records, Nembhard’s next court hearing is Wednesday.
Public prosecutor Miriam E. Rocah said in a statement on Friday that the possibility of a hate crime having occurred is still under investigation.
“Attacks like this affect us all,” she said. “They create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that prevents us from feeling safe and secure in our homes and communities.”
The violence came amid an explosion of attacks against Asian Americans just a few months after the end of President Donald Trump’s term as a leader who repeatedly blamed China for the Covid-19 pandemic.
President Joe Biden addressed the issue on Thursday in his first prime-time speech.
“Right now, many of them, our countrymen, are at the forefront of this pandemic trying to save lives and yet – are still forced to live in fear for their lives just walking the streets of America,” he said. “It is wrong, it is not American and it must stop.”
An analysis carried out this month by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, indicated that hate crimes against people of Asian heritage in the 16 largest cities in the United States increased by almost 150% in 2020.
“This was a terrible and unprovoked incident and our thoughts and prayers are with the victim and his family,” White Plains Mayor Tom Roach said in a statement on Friday. “We condemn acts of violence and hatred and we will not tolerate them in our community.”
