NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Police arrested a man on Tuesday in connection with a violent attack that left an Asian man in a coma over the weekend in East Harlem, according to officials.
Authorities initially charged 49-year-old Jarrod Powell with two counts of felony assault, but later upgraded the charges to attempted murder and two counts of hate-crime assault, the NYPD said.
Powell is accused of leaving 61-year-old Yao Pan Ma in a medically induced coma after he was pushed to the ground and repeatedly kicked in the head near the corner of Third Avenue and East 125th Street on Friday night.
Surveillance video of the attack shows the victim lying motionless as the attack contiuned.
The attack is being investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force, which released surveillance images of a suspect on Saturday. The department said Sunday it had not yet determined that the victim was targeted because he was Asian.
Pan Ma is a former restaurant worker who lost his job because of the pandemic and was out collecting cans to make ends meet.
The victim's wife, Baozhen Chen, 57, pleaded for police to find her husband's attacker in an interview with the Post.
“Please capture him as soon as possible and make him pay,” Chen said in Mandarin through a translator.
Friday's assault came amid a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes in the city. A coalition of groups protesting anti-Asian and anti-Black racism decried the latest attack at a demonstration Sunday.
They gathered at Mitchel Square in Washington Heights and planned to march to Third Avenue and E. 125th Street, where the man was beaten Friday night.
One of the protesters, Amanda, is of Chinese descent. She told 1010 WINS that Friday’s attack can’t be separated from an imperialist campaign by the U.S. government. She said China has been scapegoated for a long time.
“There is a strong anti-China propaganda campaign that the U.S. is launching, and that is directly linked to anti-Asian violence,” she said. “There is a culture of fear that’s created through imperialist propaganda.”
The U.S. Senate passed legislation last week aimed at fighting the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The measure would expedite the review of hate crimes at the Justice Department and provide support for local law enforcement in response to thousands of reported violent incidents in the past year.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed the state police’s Hate Crime Task Force to assist the NYPD in its investigation of the attack.
“I'm sickened to learn of yet another bigoted act of violence against an Asian American man,” Cuomo said in a statement. “This is not who we are as New Yorkers, and we will not let these cowardly acts of hate against members of our New York family intimidate us. We stand united with the Asian American community which has always been an important part of our diverse identity as a state.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio called the assault “outrageous” on Twitter.
“Make no mistake, we will find the perpetrator and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” de Blasio tweeted.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea shared images of the suspect, urging New Yorkers to help detectives “find the person responsible for this brutal attack.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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