Boohooman Returns Portal, Articles A

a 91-year-old shoved to the ground in Chinatown in Oakland, Calif., a white gunman in the Atlanta area drove to several businesses and shot eight people to death. "Look, I believe in second chances. I got everything back the house key, even the quarter. Eric fixated on the footage, too. A monk leaned over and gently shook Vichas ashes into the lapping waves. She tried to shield them from the video, but sometimes the evening news would be on and the footage would flash by before she could turn it off. Monthanus wore a black wool cloak over a pleated dress that flew up as the boat pulled away from the dock. We dont know how to attribute this rise in reporting, he told me. Elderly Thai man in San Francisco killed by teen in unprovoked attack. Im just a human being who feels things., He pondered this while sitting in his car, in the spot where Antoine reportedly parked on the morning of the attack on Vicha. 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. Im a bad daughter, she would say. Most of the victims were Asian.. His brother, Surachai Ratanapakdee, 89, now the only surviving sibling of eight children, remembered Mr. Vicha as studious and curious about the world outside the rice paddies, watermelon fields and orchards of the family farm. On January 28, 2021, 84-year-old Thai man Vicha Ratanapakdee was knocked to the pavement and killed in San Francisco's Anza Vista neighborhood. Verbal harassment made up 70.9% of incidents while shunning or avoidance comprised 21.4% of the incidents. 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. There were several violent crimes in San Francisco on Thursday, the article began. A news cameraman wrestled with his tripod. By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ February 2, 2021. Mr. Vichas cremated remains have been placed in two urns. The spokespersonnotedthat, if there were such documents, police could and would not be able to release them due to the incident being under an active homicide investigation. Security footage showed the assailant R Thats when I was like: This is more than some kind of accident or robbery or assault. Watson can be seen running up to Ratanapakdee and violently shoving him in video from SF CBS Local near the corner of Fortuna and Anza Vista. Any time a family suffers a violent crime, a homicide in particular, theres questions, Boudin told me. A strange voice picked up. Around midnight, after Eric and the boys went to bed, the two women drove to the corner with a bucket, gloves and a dish brush. There is outrage over San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin's description of the man police say pushed over and killed an 84-year-old in San Francisco. Knowing what happened with SARS, how Asians were going to get shunned, harassed, he says, referring to the 2003 outbreak, I was just personally and sociologically alerted to racism., Jeung set up search alerts for Asian American and discrimination. The results confirmed his fears. }); Watson allegedly carried out the deadly attack on senior citizen Vicha Ratanapakdee in the city's Anza Vista neighborhood on January 28, 2021. What kind of person would do this? 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. Just six days after taking office, President Biden issued amemorandumcondemning "inflammatory and xenophobic rhetoric" that has put Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) persons, families, communitiesand businesses at risk during the pandemic. Amanda Nguyen, a prominent activist, shared Sernoffskys report in a viral Instagram video, along with two others, one about a 64-year-old Vietnamese woman who was robbed in San Jose and another about a 61-year-old Filipino man whose face was slashed with a box cutter on the New York subway. she trailed off and let out a deep sigh. She wasnt sure if Troy even knew what was happening. The San Francisco Chronicle reports supporters of the victim's family packed the courtroom wearing "justice for Vicha" t-shirts.. Video of the incident went viral and came to symbolize the spike in anti-Asian hate, although the San Francisco District Attorney . She was a Thai immigrant living in Alameda a diverse town, she said. This unfortunate assault has to do with a break in the mental health of a teenager. Security footage, circulated widely on the internet, shows a man running towards Vicha and throwing him violently to the ground before turning around and fleeing, according to KTVU Fox 2 News.. Vicha died in hospital in the early hours of Saturday and soon after, police reportedly charged a 19-year-old man, Antoine Watson, with murder and 20-year-old female friend, Maylasia Goo, with being an . And the headlines were preoccupied with the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd. Two days after entering the hospital, just before dawn, Vicha died in his sleep. stay inside. As she watched the parade of flowers and ashes float out to sea, she spoke to him. Hundreds of people hold a rally Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022, in San Francisco and five other U.S. cities to remember the death of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee. Asian Americans in San Francisco are leading the campaign to recall the city's far-left District Attorney Chesa Boudin on June 7. . He died of a brain hemorrhage in a San Francisco hospital two days later. Vicha and Jintana Ratanapakdee on their wedding day in 1970. a mob descended on the Capitol early that month, Family of 84-Year-Old Killed in S.F. Former President Donald Trump repeatedly described the coronavirus or COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus," a reference to its outbreak from Wuhan, China. As he was escorted out of the courtroom, an older woman later identified as his grandmother shouted, "I love you Antoine! March 3, 2023 12:27 pm ET. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern, indem Sie auf unseren Websites und Apps auf den Link Datenschutz-Dashboard klicken. But, we can't solve a problem without knowing how big it is,"San Francisco assemblymember and chair of the state's budget committee,Phil Ting, said in a statement. In order to raise 10 children in the San Francisco Bay Area, we should assume Antoine Watson's parents make at least $300,000 a year. SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) - An 84-year-old California man is dead after a seemingly random daylight attack in the Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco, video from ABC 7 News shows. It was the first court appearance of 19-year-old Daly City resident Antoine Watson since he was arrested for the assault this past weekend. Four of the victims were Sikh, prompting calls to examine whether the gunman was motivated by bias. A San Francisco man accused of killing an 84-year-old Thai grandfather in an attack that galvanized Asian Americans and helped spur a successful recall of the city's liberal prosecutor was ordered . Amy Ratanapakdee thanked San Francisco police for quickly finding and arresting 19-year-old Antoine Watson and 20-year-old Malaysia Goo for her father's attack and subsequent death. Several people suggested that there was more to the video that went viral, which prompted Monthanus to walk around the block to knock on neighbors doors and ask if they would share their security-camera footage. The video shows that the elderly man had no opportunity to protect himself, Assistant District Attorney Sean Connolly wrote in a motion seeking to detain Watson. They asked the state attorney generals office to help them track what they believed to be a growing number of episodes. . Shes lost her child.. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. I think he has to pay for what he did. I think a lot of that grief and anger and scapegoating continues to be directed toward Asians.. The next day, Monthanus tried to retrace her fathers steps. He ordered one after Vichas death, along with a few cans of pepper spray and security cameras he installed around their apartment. Who is Antoine Watson? I have no chance to talk, how Im feeling right now, how I deal with it every time I do laundry, every time I drive to work, she said, looking in her rearview mirror, tears streaming. She said: You are not a victim. The group filed out to the edge of the deck. Ratanapakdee's head hit the pavement as he fell. Family believes attack of 84-year-old man in San Francisco was racial motivated. In the hours before the attack, Mr. Watson had a string of setbacks. Watson, the court documents state, had been cited for reckless driving, speeding and failure to stop at a stop sign in the hours before the attack. "Racism has once again proven deadly" An elderly Thai man was knocked down and killed by a teenager in San Francisco. Crime data from the district attorney offices in San Francisco County and Alameda County, which includes Oakland, show that people of Asian descent were less likely last year to be victims of crimes than other ethnic groups. He was also on a waiting list to become a registered gun owner. }); A teenager in San Francisco was allegedly caught on video while bum-rushing an 84-year-old man, who later died as a result of the shocking daytime attack. by Anh L. All rights reserved. During one appointment, the therapist asked if he felt angry, and he replied in that sheepish preteen way, I dont know. Monthanus knew the extra sessions were probably a lot, on top of school, weekend Thai and coding classes and the therapist he already sees to manage his A.D.H.D. Youre not doing it right, her mother snapped at one point, grabbing the brush. The trust-building really took us 10 years, Wan says. This image from CCTV footage shows the moment Vicha Ratanapakdee was fatally attacked in Anza Vista, San Francisco. San Francisco's district attorney charged Antoine Watson, the 19-year-old accused of shoving Vicha to death, with murder and elder abuse. hitType: 'event', She tried calling it. SAN FRANCISCOAntoine Watson, 19, who was arrested on January 30 for the deadly assault on an elderly man, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, was held without bail after a court hearing on Monday, February 8. Wans group, Community Youth Center, responded by opening a new office in Bayview-Hunters Point, where the attacks occurred. Friends scattered the flower petals. Rachel Marshall / (415) 416-4468 / Rachel.Marshall@sfgov.org - SAN FRANCISCO-Today, San Francisco District Attorney Boudin announced that the District Attorney's Office has filed charges against two people for the crime that took the life of 76 year-old private investigator Jack Palladino and will file charges against one person for the murder of 84 year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee. A victims advocate assigned by the district attorneys office helped the couple apply for state reimbursement for the cremation, the funeral and other expenses. The family of a Thai senior citizen who died after being violently knocked to the . San Francisco Mayor London Breed, joined by several other elected officials including City Attorney David Chiu, State Senator Scott Wiener, and Supervisors Catherine Stefani and Rafael Mandelman, led the crowd in marching and chanting slogans. SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The suspect in the brutal assault that fatally injured an 84-year-old San Francisco resident last week entered a not guilty plea to a homicide charge during a court appearance Wednesday. When she finished, the defendant lifted his glasses and wiped his eyes. The future me, the real me, says, I wish we could forgive everybody, and everybody should acknowledge this bad thing happened. And right now it feels like, maybe, his family sees me as an enemy. The Oakland attacks came as many in the Bay Area began changing their social media photos to bring awareness to the seemingly unprovoked killing of an 84-year-old Thai man in San Francisco last month. Its still there. pg.acq.push(function() { Eric held her, and she held her sons. She stepped out to check the front and the back of their building. News of a viral outbreak in Wuhan had started circulating in the international news media. Still, at a time when demands for racial justice have rocked a demographically evolving nation, the killing of Mr. Vicha was notable for the galvanizing anger it brought to a diverse group that encompasses people of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian and Southeast Asian heritage. His death helped awaken the nation to a rise in anti-Asian violence. Theres been a half-million deaths. Watson is accused in the deadly attack of Vicha Ratanapakdee in the city's Anza Vista neighborhood on January 28. ga('ads.send', { That January, an old man yelled at her in Golden Gate Park something about a virus and going back to her country while she watched her sons, then 10 and 7, run in a playground. Any other narrative is false, misleading, and divisive. Nawabi added that Watson comes from a biracial family background and had no knowledge of Mr. Ratanapakdees race or vulnerabilities since the elderly man was wearing a mask, hat, sweater and jeans. Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year old immigrant from Thailand, was preparing to go on his early morning walk in the quiet Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco on Saturday, January 28, 2021. As Monthanus poured the water, she felt her breath shorten, bit by bit, until she was gasping for air. document.querySelector("#adunit").addEventListener('click',function(){ He died shortly after being rushed to a hospital. After the attack, as her father lay on the ground, a couple driving by stopped to place a blanket on him. There will be consequences. He's currently . No one had been able to identify Vicha his pockets contained a quarter and a pair of keys. Three monks carried piles of orchids and roses, a framed photo of Vicha and a forest green box holding his remains. Their landlord had sent a series of noise complaints and eviction warnings. An 84-year-old man was killed after he was brutally attacked on a San Francisco street. In March, Jeung says, Stop AAPI Hate received roughly 2,800 reports, about the same number he received in all of 2020. The 2023 salary cap has already been set . The day after Monthanus and Erics first TV appearance, San Franciscos district attorney charged Antoine Watson, the 19-year-old accused of shoving Vicha to death, with murder and elder abuse. A lawyer for Antoine Watson, the defendant, argued that the case should be charged as involuntary manslaughter because he had no intent to kill. People use the "young teenager" label on him as an excuse to obviously protect him and his behavior. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), A local ABC News affiliate had posted footage from a surveillance camera. A.Cecil Williams told The New York Times in an article about the 2010 protest. In San Francisco, where 36 percent of the population is of Asian descent, 16 percent of crime victims of known ethnicity were Asian, a similar situation to Alameda County. Im not a judge. Then Came a Brutal Attack. Monthanus and Eric voted for him. ", ABC7's Dion Lim spoke with Ratanapakdee's family that said a temper tantrum is "no excuse" for murdering someone. gads_event = event; In the next life, I hope Ill get to be your daughter again. In November, another old man spat in her direction as her sons rode their scooters by the bay. Then the flood came. Monthanus knew she should find a counselor for herself, too. He believes that the attacks on the elderly and the Atlanta shootings led more people to file reports. In an unprovoked attack, Antoine Watson, 19, charged at Vichar Ratanapakdee, 84, on Thursday during the senior's morning walk. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. To fully appreciate the challenges that Wan and Lacoste face requires understanding the forces that have shaped that neighborhood, and many others, over decades redlining and employment discrimination, the long shadow of multiple tech booms, the burden of street violence, inadequate mental-health care, surging homelessness, the police response to all of it. Eric, who grew up near San Jose, described himself as someone who never thought much about race during his upbringing. He disliked the chilly and wet San Francisco winter and missed his favorite southern Thai dishes and his extended family and friends. At the first rally, a month earlier in March, several hundred people gathered here in support of her family. The segment ran with Vichas photo and the headline Family of 84-Year-Old Killed in S.F. 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. or redistributed. Watson, the court documents state, had been cited for "reckless driving, speeding and failure to stop at a stop sign" in the hours before the attack. Other celebrities joined in. Legal Statement. According to Sliman Nawabi, the public defender, Antoine feels remorse and shame for what happened and wishes he could sit down with Vichas family so he could explain the struggles he has gone through in life. 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. 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. She added thatRatanapakdee's family was "horrified" when she relayed the information. The footage is grainy and brief: A tall figure suddenly darts across a street and slams into a much smaller one; the smaller figure crumples onto the pavement and doesnt get back up; the white baseball cap flutters to the ground, like a leaf falling from a tree. The alleged killer is Daly City resident Antoine Watson, who was 19 at the time of the seemingly unprovoked sidewalk attack in the Anza Vista neighborhood. So we created our own website. (The California attorney generals office collects data on hate crimes in the state but not other cases involving verbal harassment, for example, which often dont constitute crimes.). One witness at the scene told officers that he saw a Black male, 18 to 30 years old, approach and stand over an elderly man lying on the ground. In an unprovoked attack, Antoine Watson, 19, charged at Vichar Ratanapakdee, 84, on Thursday during the senior's morning walk. A test soon showed that they had H1N1, a common strain of influenza, and their symptoms subsided within a week. 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". There was no evidence depicted that the elderly man did anything to provoke the attack. The Department of Police stated that they identified Watson quickly. 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. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sometimes Titus would walk into her bedroom to watch TV, see her turn away and ask, Mom, are you crying? Sometimes she walked into a room to see her own mother turn away, sniffling and cheering: Its OK! 19-year-old Antoine Watson, pushing . When she came back in, she noticed his tablet was gone. He was booked on suspicion of murder, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle. By William McCurry. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Some assailants have yelled slurs while throwing a punch or slashing at their victims with a knife. We were like, Is this a hate crime? He was like, I cant talk about this, Eric says. For a short while, Monthanus half believed it, too. On January 29, 2021, investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Watson for 245(a)1 PC - Assault with a Deadly Weapon and 368(b)1 PC - Elder Abuse causing . She had come every morning to wish her father a safe journey. After the last court hearing, Monthanus called the victims advocate assigned to her by the district attorneys office to request a Thai translator. But in practice, proving bias is difficult, especially when theres no explicit expression of it. Months before the country went into lockdown, Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, came down with a bad case of the flu. Six of the victims two women of Chinese descent, four women of Korean descent worked at the businesses targeted by the gunman, an unequivocal sign for many of those watching that he acted out of hatred, misogyny and racism. It looked like blood, but she wasnt sure. College students, high schoolers and middle schoolers organized or attended rallies in their hometowns. One of the biggest flaws of hate-crime laws, she says, is their focus on punishment. It also encourages those agencies to raise awareness about the impact of hate crimes and the services available to victims. A few steps away, she noticed a dark stain at the end of a driveway. But once he does, we should work out some kind of situation where we could forgive somehow and move on with our life. Antoine Watson, 19, . It was still early, Monthanus reminded herself, but she also couldnt shake the feeling that the world seemed to be moving on. Around the same time as the Oakland rally, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who represents the Bay Area, and Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) also denounced the "white supremacy . Monthanuss body went numb. Their marigold robes glowed in the sun. Maylasia Goo also arrested. Poypiti Amatatham contributed reporting from Bangkok. The rallies had become a place where the couple could not only feel less alone in their grief but also seek answers they couldnt seem to get elsewhere. Police officers issued him a citation. Let's dispel the myth right now that there are no consequences for committing crimes in San Francisco," Breed said. In the past year, researchers and activist groups have tallied thousands of racist incidents against Asian-Americans, a surge in hate that they link to former President Donald J. Trump repeatedly referring to the coronavirus as the Chinese virus. Mr. Vichas family described his killing as racially motivated, and it spurred a campaign to raise awareness by many prominent Asian-Americans, who used the online hashtags #JusticeForVicha and #StopAsianHate. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Monthanus offered me a pastry and asked if I had seen the latest news, about the 64-year-old Asian woman in Riverside, Calif., who was stabbed in the stomach while walking her dogs and later died of her injuries. From the front row, Monthanus fixed her gaze on him as he walked slowly to a seat near the gallery. A few hours after speaking with the nurse, a doctor called to ask permission to insert a catheter into a vein in his neck and drill a small hole into his skull, to release pressure from bleeding. Market data provided by Factset. How long did he lie outside before an ambulance arrived? }); And once I hear that, I dont think we have a choice but to accept it., I dont know if we can, you know, let him go, he added. Im not a cop. The whole family is in deep agony, Jennifer Steiner, a longtime friend whom Antoines mother chose to speak on her behalf, told me. Footage of the incident showed Ratanapakdee hitting his head on the pavement before sliding into a garage door. But we dont want to give up, because unless everybodys safe in that community, nobody is., Lyslynn Lacoste, who runs a city program called BMAGIC and works with Wans group, told me that undoing misperceptions between communities had no quick fix. There were debates among Black residents about what contributed to the shortage of affordable housing, Lacoste says, but tension also took subtler, more pervasive forms the kind she could feel most recently at a neighborhood beauty-supply store when an Asian clerk followed her as she shopped. eventAction: 'click_ads' There may be a logic behind that. Her mother had been blaming karma for her fathers death; weakened by his recent heart operations, Vicha often joked that life was getting too painful to bear. Here is a photo of Vicha Ratanapakdee, who was killed in a shocking attack last week in San Francisco. The video was taken from the same angle as the clip that everyone saw, only this footage was longer. Right, Mr. Vicha receiving the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. His mother, who was also laid off from her job during lockdown, found work through relatives in another state and was, for a while, supporting the family from afar. District Attorney responds to the . His public defender, Sliman Nawabi, challenged the murder charge, arguing that Watson did not intend to kill Vicha. Surveillance video showed Ratanapakdee walking in the driveway of a home when the suspect barrels him into the victim violently, knocking him to the ground before the suspect casually walks away in the same direction he came from. A photograph of Vicha Ratanapakdee that hangs in his daughters home.CreditKevin Kunishi for The New York Times. June 18, 2022. Body camera footage of the encounter led officers to identify Watson and a female associate he was with at the time of the assault. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Instead, he paused for a moment and turned right, as though whatever caught his eye made him decide to change course. She told me, Go wash the blood right away, Monthanus says. The suspect, Antoine Watson, was arrested and charged with murder and is pending trial. Two hours later, Antoine finally entered the room. That same month, at a protest for Angelo Quinto a Filipino American Navy veteran killed by police officers in Antioch, Calif., in December 2020 a young woman from Hawaii broke into tears while remembering the story of her Filipino-Japanese family, migrants who worked the pineapple and sugar-cane plantations, and the night the cops detained her father, who struggled with addiction, during a mental-health crisis. After several weeks, the advocate replied that the office didnt have the budget to hire a translator. But the steps were nearly empty. Eric said the photo, which was taken from behind and does not show a face, made the person look hateful. He was the one who encouraged her to go to the United States, the reason she started her life here. Im going to take care of you. It was the second such march in a week; the first, in Oakland, California, also drew dozens of supporters, many of them carrying signs demanding that racism be stamped out, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. But she and Eric feared that the trauma might manifest years, or decades, later. arrested and chargedwith murder and elder abuse. He must be happy now, because hes not coming back anymore! And sometimes, when they were alone and the guilt swelled inside Monthanus, she fell apart. Jaeah Lee is a magazine journalist based in San Francisco, with a focus on criminal justice. The suspects have been identified as Antoine Watson, 19, and Maylasia Goo, 20, both of . Monthanus gave the nurse her fathers name, his medical-record number and his six prescriptions, which included a high dose of blood thinners. } Inside, Monthanus held her composure as her frustration grew. He said she didnt want to go to court; she just wanted to bury it. A representative for the San Francisco Police Department told FOX News that the agency is unable to confirm that the documents obtained by Lim are police documents. Mr. Watsons lawyer, Sliman Nawabi, a public defender, said his client would not have been able to identify Mr. Vichas ethnicity through his face mask, cap and winter clothing. The question is: Does it prevent things like this from happening again? She continued: Regardless of the laws intent, how its received is, This is disingenuous, because were using the same tools to fix the problem. ), The next morning, Eric called the tip lines for several local news stations and left messages for reporters, inviting them to the Hall of Justice, where he and Monthanus were scheduled to meet with homicide detectives. pg.acq.push(function() { The weeks went on, and Monthanus and Eric sank deeper into their grief as their suspicions mounted toward homicide investigators, who never seemed able to give a straight answer; toward the district attorney, who seemed to put his interests before theirs; and toward Antoine Watson, about whom they knew little beyond the gaping hole he left in their lives. Mr. Vicha was fatally attacked during a morning walk last month. Donations flooded into their GoFundMe page, and they blew past their goal of $10,000 within days. This is in part because the defendant already faces a long prison sentence, and also because, as one prosecutor put it, its impossible to know whats in someones heart. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in June that federal prosecutors declined to pursue hate-crimes charges in about four out of every five cases from 2005 to 2019, citing insufficient evidence..