Oakland police make arrest in attack on elderly Asian man as concerns over violence grow

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Authorities have arrested a man who was allegedly caught on video shoving a 91-year-old Asian man to the ground in Oakland’s Chinatown, an incident that sparked outrage across the US.

The attack in the northern California city was one of three the man is accused of committing that day, and comes amid warnings of advocates about rising violence against Asian communities in the US.

Yahya Muslim, 28, was charged on Monday with assault and battery and elder abuse in connection to the three Chinatown assaults and is being held in custody on $85,000 bail.

The video documenting the first incident on 31 January showed a person forcefully pushing the 91-year-old man toward the sidewalk, sending him flying. Police later said the man went on to shove a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman on the same block down to the ground. The woman lost consciousness.

All three victims had to be treated at a local hospital.

The video drew attention from high-profile Asian Americans such as the actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu, who offered up a $25,000 reward for information on the assault. “The skyrocketing number of hate crimes against Asian Americans continues to grow, despite our repeated pleas for help,” both Kim and Wu tweeted. “The crimes ignored and even excused.”

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The actors tweeted to “remember Vincent Chin”, a Chinese American man who was bludgeoned to death in 1982 by two white autoworkers during a time of anti-Asian hatred in Detroit. They served no jail time.

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. Video of that attack shows a person running at Vicha Ratanapakdee, a “gentle, nearly blind” grandfather, and shoving him to the ground on his morning walk. Ratanapakdee died of his injuries two days later.

“Our family has endured multiple verbal anti-Asian attacks since the beginning of the pandemic,” Ratanapakdee’s son-in-law, Eric Lawson, wrote on the family’s GoFundMe page. “This time it was fatal.”

Authorities have arrested and charged Antoine Watson, 19, with murder in connection to Ratanapakdee’s killing, and Malaysia Goo, 20, with being an accessory after the fact.

With lunar new year on Friday, Wu and other Asian celebrities have been posting about Ratanapakdee’s killing, among the other violence, and calling for more awareness.

Gemma Chan
(@gemma_chan)

Hate crimes against Asian Americans have skyrocketed but too often these attacks are ignored & underreported. This is not limited to the US; in the UK attacks against East & Southeast Asians have increased 300% during the pandemic. Please share & raise awareness #EnoughIsEnough https://t.co/J9VEh5hUh1

February 6, 2021

“I wasn’t going to post these but after seeing the comment from some of you who had no idea this was going on,” Wu wrote on a post on Instagram. “Vicha Ratanapakdee was minding his own business when he was brutally tackled and killed. As you can see this was not a robbery, it was an act of hate.”