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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The NYPD announced Monday night it had made an arrest in the case of an Asian woman who was attacked as she was leaving a protest over the weekend.
It came amid a recent spike in anti-Asian violence in the city.
READ MORE: Calls To End Anti-Asian Violence Continue As NYPD Makes Arrest In Friday Attack On 1 Train
APPREHENDED and charged with a HATE CRIME. @NYPDDetectives @NYPD109Pct @NYPD9Pct https://t.co/dRBgyhxQNw
— NYPD Hate Crimes (@NYPDHateCrimes) March 22, 2021
The incident happened at around 11:30 a.m. Sunday on Astor Place in the East Village.
Nursing a twisted, swollen ankle and a bruised lip, Katie Hou said she never thought something like this would happen to her.
“Angry. Very angry,” Hou told CBS2’s Andrea Grymes on Monday.
She said she and her 7-year-old daughter had just left the Black and Asian solidarity rally in Union Square when a man approached her, asking for their sign, which read “Racist = Psychopath.”
“I thought he will be using it for the protest, so I said, ‘OK, you can have it,’” Hou said.
Hou said she and he daughter walked away, but the suspect started stomping on the sign.
“I said, ‘What are you doing?’ And he just approached me and attacked me. I chase him and I tried to grab him,” Hou said.
READ MORE: Rallies To End Asian Hate Held In NYC; ‘We’re All Different, But That Doesn’t Mean We Should Be Treated Different’
Hou said he had punched her and she twisted her ankle running after him. She said she yelled at him as he ran away.
Police said the suspect took off, disappearing into the Astor Place subway station.
Police believe her case was one of at least three suspected anti-Asian hate crimes over the weekend. The latest NYPD statistics show 22 anti-Asian hate crimes so far this year, compared to zero during the same time period last year.
On Monday afternoon, dozens attended a rally against anti-Asian hate and violence on the Lower East Side.
“An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” a speaker said.
Meanwhile, Mayor Bill de Blasio again spoke out during his daily press conference.
“It sickens me. It angers me and we will deal with it aggressively. You can expect to see increased NYPD presence out there to protect you,” de Blasio said.
Hou said she does not want what happened to her to discourage anyone from continuing to make their voice heard.
“Even though it’s risky, that doesn’t mean that you stay home and do your own things all the time,” Hou said.
Police are looking for another man in connection with an assault as a hate crime. They say he yelled and punched a 66-year-old Asian man in the face on Allen Street on the Lower East Side on Saturday at around 9 a.m.
Police arrested 36-year-old Marc Mathieu over the weekend, charging him with assault as a hate crime for a subway attack Friday afternoon. He allegedly punched a 68-year-old Asian man on the 1 train.
MORE NEWS: Police: 66-Year-Old Man Punched In Face In Possible Anti-Asian Hate Crime On Lower East Side
Anyone with information about the latest attacks is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
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