Hate crime suspect accused of threatening Asian woman, smashing her cellphone, telling her 'go back to China'

A hate crime suspect threatened an Asian woman on a New York City subway train Tuesday morning, smashed her cellphone, and told her to "go back to China," police told the New York Daily News.

The paper ran the same photos of the suspect in its story that appear in the below tweet from NYPD Transit:

What are the details?

The suspect was sitting across from the victim on a No. 7 train in Flushing in the borough of Queens about 11:30 a.m. when he told the 35-year-old woman to "go back to China" and "don't look at me, you COVID spreader," police told the Daily News.

The suspect also threatened to hurt the victim and go to Chinatown and attack others, police said, according to the paper.

When the victim's cellphone rang, she began speaking in her native language while recording the suspect — who reacted by grabbing the phone from her and smashing it on the ground, police told the Daily News.

The screen was damaged but the woman picked up her phone and ran to another car, the paper said, adding that her assailant got off at the nest stop, Mets-Willets Point.

The woman then gave her damaged phone to police, who recovered her video and released images to the public, the Daily News said.

The paper said the suspect is about 6-foot-4 and weighs about 180 pounds.

More of the same

It was the latest in an increasing number of anti-Asian attacks in New York City:

• A hate crime suspect was arrested for allegedly punching an Asian woman twice in the face in front of her 7-year-old daughter Saturday as they were on their way to rally — against violence toward Asians.
• A witness said an attacker yelled "you motherf***ing Asian" at a 68-year-old man before punching him in the face Friday on a subway train.
• A man urinated on an Asian woman aboard a subway train over the weekend, police told the New York Post.
• A 61-year-old Asian man was slashed across his face on a subway train as he was riding to the first of his two jobs last month; he had asked the suspect to stop kicking his backpack.

The NYPD noted that there have been at least 23 anti-Asian hate crimes this year compared to 29 during all of 2020, according to WABC-TV.