Two Asian women were attacked in New York City on Sunday\u00a0by a stranger who demanded they remove their masks before striking one in the head with a hammer, police said.<\/p>\n
The two women, 31 and 29, respectively, were walking together\u00a0in the 410 block of West 42nd Street at about 8:40 p.m. when a woman confronted them on the sidewalk, yelling at them to remove their masks, according to the New York City Police Department. She then struck the 31-year-old woman in the head with a hammer, which caused a laceration, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No arrests have been made as of Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was talking to herself\u2026 I thought maybe she was drunk or something, so we just wanted to pass through her quickly,\u201d the victim, who went by her first name, Theresa, told\u00a0ABC7. \u201cWhen I passed through her, she saw us and said \u2018Take off your f——\u00a0mask,’\u00a0which is shocking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
ABC7 reported that the victim was stable after being rushed to the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunday’s alleged\u00a0assault occurred on the same day\u00a0that hundreds of New Yorkers gathered for a rally condemning the spike in violence against Asians and Asian Americans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The city has reported\u00a042 hate crime incidents against Asians and Asian Americans,\u00a0according to the\u00a0NYPD Hate Crimes Dashboard, which was last updated April 22 and lists the last incident confirmed in March. In all of 2020, the NYPD dashboard showed\u00a028 hate crime incidents.<\/p>\n
But the NYPD\u2019s Hate Crime Task Force said the city recorded 80 anti-Asian hate crimes from January to the beginning of April,\u00a0reported the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n
‘Harsh reality’: <\/strong>Asian leaders urge US to stop AAPI violence, demand reforms<\/span><\/p>\n ‘Outrageous’: <\/strong>New York man hospitalized in critical condition after anti-Asian attack<\/span><\/p>\n Similar incidents have been documented in other cities, especially those with large Asian populations such as\u00a0San Francisco and Oakland, California.<\/p>\n In March, the organization\u00a0Stop AAPI Hate\u00a0\u2014 founded last year in response to increased targeting of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the pandemic \u2014 said it had received reports of nearly 3,800 hate incidents in a year\u00a0and estimated that was only a fraction of the actual number.<\/p>\n In April,\u00a0the U.S. Senate passed legislation aimed at fighting the rise in hate crimes against members of the AAPI community.<\/p>\n New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo condemned the “senseless and despicable”\u00a0attack\u00a0in a statement to NBC.<\/p>\n “I am disgusted by this violent attack in Midtown Manhattan, the latest seemingly senseless and despicable hate crime against Asian Americans in this state,” Cuomo said in a statement Tuesday. “We will do everything in our power to protect those who are vulnerable to these attacks and to hold cowardly perpetrators accountable to the full extent of the law.”<\/p>\n