A homeless man has been arrested eight times for assaulting and setting fires around the city of New York.
He is involved in an assault by punching an Asian woman in the face as she was walking down a street in Manhattan.
Alexander Wright had been arrested moments after the unprovoked attack, happening in broad daylight with bystanders as witnesses. He was taken into custody soon after, being charged with assault, assault as a hate crime, and possession of controlled substance.
The victim had been rushed to the hospital in order to treat her injuries. Luckily, she is reported to be in stable condition.
Demot Shea, NYPD Commissioner, tells CBS New York that the assailant “lives in a shelter, arrested eight times in the last year, randomly assaulting people, setting fires. The guy that was arrested on Friday setting fires. What are we doing in society, we’re releasing these people right back onto the street?”
Crimes in New York have been increasing, and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s bail reforms have been put under criticism because arrested suspects are back on the city’s streets.
Felony assaults such as the one Wright is being charged of has rocketed by more than a third. There was a 35.3% increase on the records back in 2020.
The latest information is provided by the New York Police Department’s CompState website, showing murder cases being increased up to 28.6% just last week. Serious crime in general had rose up to 49%.
Police comment that the victim had been walking along Bayard Street while minding her business, but Wright had punched her as he was coming along the opposite direction of the sidewalk. Luckily, a surveillance camera had taken footage of the moment, showing the woman falling to the sidewalk because of his brute force.
Jin Zhen, a bystander, had recorded the attack and it went viral on social media platforms Twitter and Instagram. He ran to a nearby police precinct to alert officers, they were able to track Wright moments after.
The violent incident comes after a rise in hate crimes against Asians and the Asian-America community in New York City.
There is another attack where a person punches a 75-year-old woman walking along the streets in Queens. She had been coming back from the supermarket and was caught in an unprovoked attack.