An Asian-owned convenience store in Charlotte, North Carolina, was destroyed by a man wielding a metal pole and shouting racial slurs
CHARLOTTE – An Asian-owned convenience store in Charlotte, North Carolina, was destroyed by a man who wielded a metal pole and shouted racial slurs, police said and a son of the store’s owners.
Surveillance footage shows a man pulling a shelf of goods on the floor and throwing a street sign into the glass of the refrigerators. A man who appears to a friend of the attacker is rooting for him.
The attack took place on Tuesday at a store called Plaza Sundries, which is in the city center, close to Charlotte’s main transit hub. And it follows an attack on a woman of Asian descent in New York City and the fatal shooting of eight people at three massage companies in the Atlanta area. Six of these victims were women of Asian descent.
Despite increased attention to these attacks, violence and racially charged language was nothing new, said Mark Sung, whose parents own the store, and his wife Grace Lee Sung.
“When my husband got the call (about the attack), it was like a routine,” said Lee Sung. “He was like,” Okay, check the mess. See surveillance. File the (police) report. “
The pandemic fueled the tension, the couple said, with some people blaming the store owners for the coronavirus. They have lived in the United States for decades, since they moved from South Korea.
“It’s like, ‘Hey, you’re different,'” said Lee Sung, offering a clean summary of the insults. “’You obviously can’t be from here. Go back to your country. ‘”
But the owners have experienced a different feeling since the attack: a woman came to the store and gave the owners soup. A pizza delivery man came in with five pies. A local doctor handed over a check. More than $ 30,000 was raised through GoFundMe to cover damage to the store.
“My in-laws are more shocked that people really care than they do about the (attack),” said Lee Sung. “And it took a while to process why they were getting so much attention.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said a company responsible for security at the transit center arrested Xavier Rashee Woody-Silas, The Charlotte Observer reported. He was arrested for theft with a dangerous weapon, reporting threats, disorderly conduct, injury to personal property and resistance to public officials, according to public records. It is not clear whether he hired a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
Nationwide hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders increased by 150% during the pandemic, according to a study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
The show of support for store owners is making them “feel heard,” said Lee Sung of his in-laws.
“My mother-in-law can’t stop crying every time someone says, ‘I’m sorry for what you’re going through,'” she said. “It’s just a reminder that – wow, things shouldn’t be that way.”
But the family is being cautious about moving forward.
“She is also scared because she is not used to all that attention,” said Mark Sung of his mother. “So, she’s also a little nervous. … We are just trying to be careful. “