NYC seeing spike in violence against Asian-Americans
Co-founder and CEO of Catalyst Edward Chiu slams NYC officials for rise in crime and calls on other CEO's to take a stand against violence
The CEO of a Manhattan-based company is calling on elected officials to resolve the surging crime crisis after the murder of a woman in her apartment by a suspect with a long rap sheet.
"New York City is supposed to be the most welcoming, diverse and best city in the world, and two women have been recently senselessly murdered while walking up their stairs and waiting for a subway," Catalyst co-founder Edward Chiu told "Fox & Friends First."
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Chiu's comments come on the heels of an Asian woman being murdered in her own home over the weekend by a homeless man.
Police say that late Sunday 35-year-old Christina Yuna Lee was stalked by a homeless man on her way home from a party in New Jersey where she was then stabbed to death over 40 times and found naked from the waist up in her bathtub.
Asian hate crimes in New York City in 2020 were up 900%, compared to 2021 where more than 4,000% cases were reported, according to the New York Police Department. Although police have not called the killing a hate crime, attacks against the Asian-American community have spiked since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
This mugshot shows Assamad Nash, 25, who was taken into custody over the fatal stabbing of Christina Yuna Lee inside her sixth-floor walk-up Chinatown apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. (Fox News Digital )
New York City saw a 38.5% surge in overall crime in January, according to data released by the NYPD.
The surge was driven by a 91.5% increase in thefts of vehicles, a 58.1% increase in grand larceny, a 33.1% increase in robberies, a 26.7% increase in rapes, a 12.3% increase in felony assaults, and a 7.5% increase in burglaries.
The troubling January crime data comes after murders in New York City rose in 2021 compared to 2020. Additionally, hate crimes in New York City nearly doubled in 2021 and race-based attacks against the Asian community rose 343%.
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Mayor Eric Adams with city law officials, speaks at a news conference inside a subway station after a woman was pushed to her death in front of a subway train at the Times Square station, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in New York. (NYPD News via AP) (NYPD News via AP)
Chiu told host Carley Shimkus the rising crime is "highly terrifying."
"Mayor Adams has said New Yorkers feel as if a sea of violence is engulfing our city, and no one wants to live in a city where that term is used and that's actually happening," Chiu said.
"So I'm agreeing to speak out on various news channels because I want the governor and I want the mayor to hear loud and clear that CEOs and citizens who are responsible for the success of this economy are not OK with what's happening."
Fox News' Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.