It happened just before 2 pm on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, where officials say the man had a verbal altercation with the 52-year-old woman.
“Get the (expletive) out of my way,” he would have said before pushing the victim.
She fell and hit her head against a newsstand and was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Queens in stable condition.
Exclusive video obtained by Eyewitness News shows the aggression:
The victim’s son, 52, said she needed about 10 stitches to close the cut on her forehead after hitting him at the metal newsstand.
“She is still in shock, she is happy to still be alive,” he said. “She is happy that she left with a rather gnarly injury, but not enough to incapacitate her.”
Witnesses said the suspect was cursing the victim just before unloading on her.
“The guy just peeked out of the cafeteria and said, ‘I’m going to finish you!'” Said witness Derrick Chan. “And then, all of a sudden, he goes out and throws her a box of spoons. And then he just makes a football bag and throws it on the floor.”
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The police are looking for a man seen on the surveillance camera wearing a red sweatshirt with a green jacket and gray pants. At this point, the incident is not being investigated as a hate crime.
Some celebrities embraced the cause, led by actress Olivia Munn.
Munn has been talking about an increase in crimes against Asian Americans across the country during the pandemic. Last week, she said in an Instagram post that she found herself “speechless with the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes”, which “have shot since Covid and continue to increase.”
“Hate crimes against Asian Americans became so serious that last week a 91-year-old Asian American was attacked from behind while walking down the street in Oakland, an 84-year-old Thai American was murdered in San Francisco, an American Vietnamese woman from 64 years old was beaten in San Jose and a Filipino American man was hit in the face in Manhattan, “Munn said in the post.
Awkwafina and Gemma Chan also posted about the incident.
The victim’s son said that although she was in pain and in shock, that did not stop her from running errands on Wednesday.
“Nothing is stopping that woman,” he said. “I can try. I asked her to stay home. She is not stopping. There is no one who can stop her, I cannot stop her.”
The attack is the latest incident in a worrying trend that is happening across the country. In recent weeks, there has been an alarming increase in vulnerable Asian Americans who have become victims of unprovoked attacks.
On Tuesday, Eyewitness News spoke exclusively to the 71-year-old Asian woman who was shot in the face while sitting on a moving E train in Midtown. A few hours earlier, a 68-year-old Asian woman was punched in the back of the head on the platform of an A train in Harlem.
According to the NYPD, there were 29 anti-Asian hate crimes reported in 2020. They say that 24 of those hate crimes were cases of COVID xenophobia.
Tuesday’s three attacks are not being investigated as hate crimes.
Anyone with information regarding this incident should call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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