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Asian American community leaders held a rally Tuesday in honor of a 35-year-old Korean American woman slaughtered Sunday in New York City by a homeless stranger who followed her into her apartment.
Dozens gathered in Sara D. Roosevelt Park two blocks from the building where Christina Yuna Lee was stabbed more than 40 times allegedly by career criminal Assamad Nash. The people gathered to condemn violence against Asians and the city's soaring crime rate.
Soojin Choi, a representative for state Senator John Liu, said the Asian American community is under siege.
"For the last two years, we have been the target of relentless hatred, bigotry and violence over and over again," she told the gathered crowd. "But no matter how many times these attacks occur we will speak out every single time to draw attention to the injustice, the pain and the desperate need for the government to take action."
City Councilwoman Sandra Ung, who represents a district in Queens, said she couldn't believe that the group of activists and politicians were having a rally so soon after a candlelight vigil was held for another Asian American senselessly murdered in Manhattan.
"We’re here again less than a month after many of us came together to mourn the death of Michelle Go," Ung said. "How much more do we have to do this?"
Go, 40, who worked as a senior manager for Deloitte Consulting, was shoved in front of a southbound R train in Times Square in an unprovoked attack last month. Simon Martial, who is homeless, is charged with second-degree murder for her killing. Prosecutors are probing whether the attack was motivated by racial bias.
"We cannot become numb, and we cannot accept these crimes as the status quo," Ung told reporters. "New Yorkers deserve to walk down the streets without fear of attack."
The group walked to Lee's building to place white flowers at a makeshift memorial.
Yao Pan Ma, 61, died on New Year's Eve eight months after Jarrod Powell, 49, ambushed him in East Harlem and allegedly stomped on his head. Powell is charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime.
Mugshot of Assamad Nash, 25, who is charged with stabbing Christina Yuna Lee to death inside her Chinatown apartment. (Fox News)
New York City hate crime complaints nearly doubled in 2021 compared to the prior year. Hate crimes against Asians soared 343%, rising from 30 reported incidents in 2020 to 133 in 2021.
The brutal attack on Lee, who worked as a creative producer for music platform Splice, occurred around 4:20 a.m. after Nash, 25, allegedly followed her into her building at 111 Chrystie Street in Chinatown.
When she reached her sixth floor apartment, Nash ran up behind her and pushed his way in, according to a criminal complaint. Moments later, a witness heard a woman screaming for help and a man telling her to "calm down, I have a gun," the complaint alleges.
111 Chrystie Street where Christina Yuna Lee was stabbed to death Feb. 12, 2022. (Google Maps)
Five minutes later, police arrived at the apartment and heard Lee calling for help before she went silent, prosecutor Dafna Yoran said at Nash's arraignment Monday night on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and first-degree burglary as a sexually motivated felony.
Nash allegedly imitated the voice of a woman, telling officers they didn't need police before trying to flee out the fire escape, Yoran said. After he spotted an officer on the roof, he retreated.
At about 5:40 a.m. officers from the Emergency Services Unit took down the apartment door and found Lee's butchered body in the bathroom naked from the waist up and covered in stab wounds.
NYC SUBWAY ATTACK VICTIM MICHELLE ALYSSA GO TO BE HONORED WITH TIMES SQUARE CANDLELIGHT VIGIL
Nash allegedly was cowering under her bed with a stab wound to his torso and cuts on his hands and shoulder. A yellow-handled knife was stashed behind a dresser, the prosecutor said.
Nash has an extensive criminal record in New Jersey and was out on supervised release on three pending Manhattan cases, including for allegedly slugging a stranger in the face on the subway.
Yoran said investigators are probing whether Nash targeted Lee due to racial animus or belief.
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Judge Jay Weiner ordered Nash held without bail. He's due back in Manhattan Criminal Court Feb. 18.
"Our entire city grieves for Christina Yuna Lee and her family," Choi said at the rally. "We will remember her not just for the violent circumstances of her death but for the good life she lived."
