75-year-old Asian woman fought off accused attacker. Now man is arrested, CA cops say
A man accused of attacking two older Asian people in San Francisco, including a 75-year-old woman who said she fought back, has been arrested, police say.
San Francisco police said in a statement that Steven Jenkins, 39, was arrested Wednesday and booked into San Francisco County Jail on charges of elder abuse and assault.
Xiao Zhen Xie told KPIX — through her daughter Dong-Mei Li interpreting from Chinese — that she was waiting at a traffic light when a man punched her in her left eye, leading her to defend herself with a stick.
“Very traumatized, very scared and this eye is still bleeding,” Li said, according to the station. “The right eye still cannot see anything and still bleeding and we have something to absorb the bleeding.”
Police said they responded to a report Wednesday of Xie and an 83-year-old Asian man being attacked.
According to police, Jenkins got into a “physical altercation” around 30 minutes before the assault on the 83-year-old.
Jenkins was trying to get away from a security guard when police say he assaulted Xie.
Jenkins was detained by the guard before officers arrived and taken to a hospital “for an unrelated, prior medical condition,” according to police. Xie and the 83-year-old man had non life-threatening injuries and were also transported to a hospital, authorities said.
“Investigators are working to determine if racial bias was a motivating factor in the incident,” police said in a statement to McClatchy News. Both attacks were unprovoked, police said.
In a video posted on Twitter on Wednesday showing the aftermath of the attack, Xie is seen with an eye injury and holding an ice pack to her face. The accused attacker is seen with a bloodied face and handcuffed to a stretcher.
In the video, Xie is also crying and pointing with what appears to be a wooden board as the stretcher is wheeled away.
A surge in attacks on Asian Americans has been reported across the country during the pandemic.
From March 19, 2020, to Feb. 28, there were 3,800 reports of anti-Asian attacks or racism nationwide, with Asian women making up 68% of those targeted, according to Stop AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islanders) Hate.
This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 11:40 AM with the headline "75-year-old Asian woman fought off accused attacker. Now man is arrested, CA cops say."