hitType: 'event', Our seniors are afraid to walk their own streets, Mr. Chan said. She had learned small details about the suspect from her initial conversations with the police: male, 19 years old, African American. Monthanus and Eric had been busy arranging her fathers funeral while fielding phone calls and messages from family, friends and strangers. Poypiti Amatatham contributed reporting from Bangkok. Mayor London Breed and Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered condolences. 84-year-old man killed in daytime attack in San Francisco Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle. Why High-Profile Attacks on SF's Asian Communities Rarely Lead - KQED The grandmother of a teen who senselessly pushed and killed a Thai grandfather has said her grandson should walk free. Why did this happen? San Francisco police were quickly able to identify Watson as the assault suspect. San Francisco District Attorneys office stated that Watson had been observed and contacted by San Francisco Police officers earlier that morning for traffic violations following a minor collision and was issued a citation. A young man in a gas mask and a bulletproof vest said he had flown in from New York City after seeing the video. On the same day, Watson was apprehended at his home in Daly City along with 20-year-old Maylasia Goo . A web camera streamed the ceremony for friends and family abroad. Can I see my father? she asked. ga('ads.send', { Surveillance video from a camera across the street captured the moment of impact. Initial investigation by SIT/General Crimes Unit identified the male suspect as 19-year-old Antoine Watson of Daly City and the female associate as 20-year-old Maylasia Goo of Daly City. His orange jumpsuit fit loosely over his tall frame, chains linking his wrists, his hair growing out. Otherwise, her mother believed, Vichas soul couldnt leave the earth and start its journey toward the afterlife. Inside, Monthanus held her composure as her frustration grew. Its the everyday little microaggressions and little nuances thats harder to tackle.. The streets were quiet. Lucas Manfredi is a general assignment reporter for Fox News. A.Cecil Williams told The New York Times in an article about the 2010 protest. 84 Year-old Thai Man Brutally Attacked and Killed in San Francisco But AAPI still attacked, deeper, deeper every day. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin hassparked outrage on social mediaafter telling the New York Times that 19-year-old AntoineWatsonwas "in some sort of a temper tantrum" when he allegedly attacked84-year-oldThai immigrant Vichar Ratanapakdee. And though half of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Bay Area are low- or very-low-income, as defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (a quarter live in high-income households), they are often seen as beneficiaries of rising inequality. Antoine Watson arrested assault w/deadly weapon & elder abuse. Here is a photo of Vicha Ratanapakdee, who was killed in a shocking attack last week in San Francisco. 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. In an unprovoked attack, Antoine Watson, 19, charged at Vichar Ratanapakdee, 84, on Thursday during the senior's morning walk. We dont know how to attribute this rise in reporting, he told me. The court system, which they thought would deliver swift justice, was confoundingly slow. Body camera footage of the encounter led police to identify him. Stories like Vichas inspired some to start neighborhood-patrol groups to accompany elders on their walks to and from home, scan the streets for suspicious activity and, in some cases, call the police to intervene. In the absence of any sense of resolution, the couple began searching for clues on their own. Monthanus and Eric posed for photos and signed a petition to recall Chesa Boudin, as people stopped to greet them with elbow bumps and condolences. assault in Western Addition that led to the death an 84-year-old man, police said. He's currently . Sliman Nawabi, a deputy public defender representing Watson, disputed the perception that the attack was racially motivated. In the weeks since it happened, Mr. Vichas death has become a symbol for the vulnerability that many in the Asian-American community feel in this moment. In Thailand, the killing was front-page news and described as barbaric, a life cut short in a family where siblings typically live into their late 90s, relatives say. Two suspects have been arrested. She could feel the weight of the pandemic starting to lift, but where there had once been anticipation, she now felt dread. Yet today I still face people from the Black community who will come into our office on a weekly basis, saying that we only care about our people, that we just take their resources. After interviewing prosecutors across more than 30 states, Avlana Eisenberg, a law professor at Florida State University, found that district attorneys offices often avoid adding hate-crime charges even and perhaps especially when the crime is particularly horrific, she wrote in The Atlantic this year. Captured on a neighbors security camera, the video of the attack was watched with horror around the world. Activists have argued the rise in hate incidentsshows a pattern of abuse related to blame placed on the Asian American community for the coronavirus pandemic. "These violent assaults have a devastating impact on our community as they are part of an alarming rise in anti-Asian American hate during the COVID-19 pandemic," Stop AAPI Hate co foundersManjusha Kulkarni and Cynthia Choi said in a joint statement. Breed spoke of the shock she felt seeing the brutal assault of Ratanapakdee on video and offered her sympathies to the family. This comes after the news made national headlines amid growing concerns about rising anti-Asian sentiment during the pandemic and attacks against Asian American elders. He died shortly after being rushed to a hospital. A petite 84-year-old with soft white hair, Vicha Ratanapakdee was a lifelong Buddhist, the kind of person who embraced the world with open arms. Shes lost her child.. She was a Thai immigrant living in Alameda a diverse town, she said. She clutched a few sheets of paper in one hand. Then the flood came. As he was escorted out of the courtroom, an older woman later identified as his grandmother shouted, "I love you Antoine! Ratanapakdee's head hit the pavement as he fell. She had always looked to her father when something troubled her conscience. Monthanus was alone in the room with her sister on FaceTime. I was like, There is something going on here. At the first few rallies they attended, Eric casually surveyed attendees, asking whether they had ever been spit on or pushed and what the race of the perpetrator was. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/magazine/vicha-ratanapakdee.html. Right, Mr. Vicha receiving the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. That evening, the couple stood at the doorway to her fathers room on the third-floor intensive-care unit. ga('ads.send', { },false) This image from CCTV footage shows the moment Vicha Ratanapakdee was fatally attacked in Anza Vista, San Francisco. Less than 24 hours later, a spokesman for the Cherokee County sheriff reduced the rampage to the act of a sex addict having a really bad day; then it was revealed that the same spokesman reportedly promoted T-shirts calling the coronavirus an IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA. The rage boiled over. How long did he lie outside before an ambulance arrived? They also identified a female associate he was with at the time of the assault as 20-year-old Daly City resident Maylasia Goo. ga('ads.send', { No one helped him because they thought he had Covid, Jeung says. 84-year-old killed after horrific daytime attack - ABC7 San Francisco The Cost Of Raising Many Children Isn't Just About The Money After her graduation, when Ms. Monthanus married and decided to stay in San Francisco, Mr. Vicha and his wife came to help raise their grandchildren. News of a viral outbreak in Wuhan had started circulating in the international news media. SAN FRANCISCO Weary of being cooped inside during the pandemic, . Why was an elderly San Francisco man killed? Was it a hate crime? Murder charge for 19 year old who barrelled down - Thai Examiner Thats when I was like: This is more than some kind of accident or robbery or assault. Through her organization, Hollins, who lost two brothers to homicide in the last decade, assists victims of crime and lobbies to increase support services provided by the state. Who is Antoine Watson? As they waited for Antoines hearing to start, Monthanus and Eric watched from the front row of the gallery as the judge heard a series of other cases. if(document.querySelector("#adunit")){ I want to know why, she said. But the overwhelming majority of hate-crime perpetrators are white.). There is absolutely zero evidence that Mr. Ratanapakdees ethnicity and age was a motivating factor in being assaulted, Nawabi said. The stories filled Monthanus with questions. They have any language to help anybody.. A news cameraman wrestled with his tripod. Monthanus arrived at the steps of the San Francisco Hall of Justice, an imposing concrete building that spans a city block, where Antoine Watson was scheduled to appear for a pretrial hearing. In the footage, Ratanapakdee, who was originally from Thailand, can be seen walking in the driveway of a house when the suspect suddenly sprinted towards him and knocked him to the ground before casually walking away in the same direction he came from. When she finished, the defendant lifted his glasses and wiped his eyes. When she made it to the hill, she noticed a neighbor working in his garage and asked if he knew where the episode happened the other day. Pa, can you hear me? she repeated. It's not clear Watson's motivation. He believes that the attacks on the elderly and the Atlanta shootings led more people to file reports. eventAction: 'click_adunit' In an unprovoked attack, Antoine Watson, 19, charged at Vichar Ratanapakdee, 84, on Thursday during the senior's morning walk. That older victim has been wrongly described in many news accounts as Asian. By William McCurry. Their marigold robes glowed in the sun. Kevin Kunishi is an American photographer living in Oakland, Calif., who is known for creating long-form projects that explore aftermath, trauma and identity. Boudin, who started his term just a few months before the lockdown, in January 2020, inherited more than 5,000 criminal prosecutions. The San Francisco District Attorney has filed murder charges and elder abuse causing death charges against the 19-year-old suspect in the case, Antoine Watson, calling the crime a "brutal . }); Police . The next day, Monthanus tried to retrace her fathers steps. by Anh L. When Ms. Monthanus expressed her desire to go to graduate school two decades ago, Mr. Vicha supported her decision to enroll in business school at the University of California, Berkeley. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern, indem Sie auf unseren Websites und Apps auf den Link Datenschutz-Dashboard klicken. However, his comment to the Timeshassparked the hashtags#JusticeForVicha and #StopAsianHate on social media, which come amid a startling increase in hate incidentsagainst Asian Americans across the United States. "But when you cross that line, when you commit murder, when you take someone's life like that, we as a city and as a society have to hold you accountable for your actions. Three monks carried piles of orchids and roses, a framed photo of Vicha and a forest green box holding his remains. San Francisco DA dismisses killing as a 'temper tantrum' Man accused of fatally shoving Vicha Ratanapakdee enters preliminary Being found guilty of a hate crime would not extend such a sentence significantly, but the designation has always symbolized more to victims and their families: the difference between calling out prejudice and denying it. District Attorney Chesa Boudin has said Goo was seated in the car and played no apparent role in the attack. Just who is it attacking Asian Americans? | Washington Examiner I know its not a scientific poll or whatever. The responses confirmed a thought in his mind all the same. Throughout 2020, multiple strangers had come at her seemingly out of nowhere. Eric and Monthanus being interviewed by a local TV station outside the Hall of Justice in San Francisco in July. In recent years, the Asian percentage of the Bayviews population has become five times as large as it was in 1980, while the Black share has shrunk by more than half. CALIFORNIADA RESPONDS TO ATTACKS AGAINST ELDERLY ASIANS, AS ACTIVISTS CLAIM CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC TO BLAME, A spokesperson for Boudin clarified that his comment was made "regardingMr. Watsons behavior prior to the murder" and that Boudin "charged the killing of Mr. Ratanapakdee as a murder, the most serious crime on the books.". Someone had been falsely claiming to reporters that he was Vichas son and spoke on behalf of the family about what would happen to his remains. When her mother saw the video, she stiffened. The mainstream media does not spotlight our stories enough, Nguyen said into the camera, urging her vast following to share the story and tag CNN and MSNBC. Ratanapakdeewas walking in the city's Anza Vista neighborhood on the morning of Jan.28 when he was violently shoved to the ground in whatBoudinreferred to as "a horrific, senseless attack". She could see that Vichas death meant something bigger than her own grief, that he was part of a history that preceded her and a future she could help shape. (The data, though incomplete, show that hate crimes against Asian Americans were more likely to be committed by nonwhite offenders than those against Hispanics or African Americans. Antoine Watson, 19, . A former public defender, Boudin was part of a new wave of progressive prosecutors who entered office the year before with the promise of reform. Owners of gun stores reported more Asian customers than ever before.