NYPD Charges 38-Year-Old Man With Assault, Hate Crime in Anti-Asian Attack

A parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago was arrested on assault and hate crime charges in an attack on an Asian American woman in New York City, police said early Wednesday.

Police said Brandon Elliot, 38, is the man seen on surveillance video kicking and stomping the woman near Times Square on Monday.

They said Elliot was living at a hotel that serves as a homeless shelter a few blocks from the scene of the attack. He was taken into custody at the hotel around midnight. Tips from the public led to his apprehension, police said.

Elliot was convicted of stabbing his mother to death in the Bronx in 2002, when he was 19. He was released from prison in 2019 and is on lifetime parole. The parole board had previously twice denied his release. His record also included an arrest for robbery in 2000.

"This was a completely unprovoked, violent attack on an innocent, defenseless woman," Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a news conference Wednesday.

Elliot, who is Black, faces charges of assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, assault and attempted assault in Monday's attack.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said prosecutors will seek to have Elliot jailed without bail pending trial. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, Vance said.

A law enforcement official identified the victim as 65-year-old Vilma Kari. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and did no on condition of anonymity. Kari's daughter told The New York Times that she emigrated from the Philippines several decades ago.

"This brave woman belongs here," Vance said. "Asian American New Yorkers belong here. Everyone belongs here."

Monday's attack, among the latest in a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, drew widespread condemnation and concerns about the failure of bystanders to intervene.

The attack happened just weeks after a mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent, and just a few days after a 65-year-old Asian American woman in the same midtown Manhattan neighborhood was threatened and heckled with anti-Asian slurs.

Monday's attack happened in the late morning in front of a luxury apartment building in Hell's Kitchen, a predominantly white neighborhood west of Times Square.

Two workers inside the building who appeared to be security guards were seen on video witnessing the attack but failing to come to the woman's aid. One of them was seen closing the building door as the woman was on the ground.

Detective Michael Rodriguez said there were no 911 calls. He said patrol officers driving by came upon the victim after she was assaulted.

The building's management company said they were suspended pending an investigation. The workers' union said they called for help immediately.

Residents of the building defended the workers Wednesday in a letter to the management company and the media.

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