A man was left in critical condition after a brutal attack in East Harlem late Friday night and police want to know if it was racially motivated.
Police said a 61-year-old Asian man, not yet identified, was thrown to the ground near 3rd Avenue and East 125th Street around 8:30 p.m.
The suspect allegedly struck the man, then proceeded to repeatedly kick the victim in his head. Video tweeted out by the NYPD appears to show the moments the attacker stomped on the victim's head.
Police said EMS responded a short time later and rushed the man over to a local hospital.
The NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force is now investigating why the 61-year-old man was attacked. The department has not, however, specified if the victim was targeted because of his race.
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Police had not announced any arrests as of Saturday afternoon.
Friday night's attack has not been deemed a hate crime by police, but it echoes a similar caught-on-camera incident in Hell's Kitchen last month where a 65-year-old woman was kicked repeatedly -- all done amid a wave of racially-motivated attacks against Asian Americans.
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Brandon Elliot, 38, is facing assault and hate crime charges for allegedly kicking the Asian American woman and shouting anti-Asian slurs.
At the time of the Hell's Kitchen attack, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office had more than a dozen anti-Asian hate crime cases open this year alone.
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The Senate passed legislation Thursday targeting anti-Asian hate crimes after an uptick of incidents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The House Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, considered a similar version of the bill introduced by Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY, on Wednesday.
