A person arrested final month in reference to a string of assaults on seven Asian girls over a three-hour interval in New York Metropolis has been charged with felony and misdemeanor hate crimes costs, prosecutors stated Monday.
Steven Zajonc, 28, was indicted on six counts of third-degree assault as a hate crime and 7 counts of second-degree aggravated harassment for the Feb. 27 assaults in Manhattan. Authorities stated the assaults weren’t provoked.
In a number of of the assaults, Zajonc allegedly approached the ladies from behind and struck them within the face with a closed fist or elbow earlier than fleeing. Their accidents included bruising and bleeding, prosecutors stated, and one sufferer was knocked unconscious and handled at a hospital for a concussion.
“These assaults on seven New York girls, every fueled by anti-Asian hate, are yet one more sobering reminder of the demonstrable fears [Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders] communities, significantly AAPI girls, in our Metropolis proceed to face,” Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
Zajonc, who was not listed as having an legal professional, was arrested on March 2 after he barricaded himself inside a New York Public Library in Midtown following a manhunt, NBC New York reported on the time.
Anti-Asian hate crimes rose dramatically following the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The Manhattan DA’s Workplace stated it has 27 open hate crime circumstances associated to anti-Asian hate crimes as of Monday.
