(San Francisco) — Newly surfaced video shows an Asian woman in her 50s brutally robbed at gunpoint in San Francisco in October 2020.
The incident took place in the Sunset neighborhood. The woman, who only wished to be identified as Ms. Lee, according to San Francisco ABC station KGO-TV, said the attack occurred after she arrived at her niece’s home after having dim sum with friends in the Richmond District.
Footage of the incident, which police are reviewing, appears to be taken from a security camera across the street and shows a white SUV pass by Ms. Lee, then circle back and stop near her. A person then jumps out of the van and grabs her.
Lee falls to the ground and is heard screaming for help as the man pulls her bag from her hands and holds her at gun point, according to KGO-TV.
She told the station that one suspect returned after the robbery of the handbag to take her jewelry and Rolex watch.
“It really changed her so much, every time she talks about it, she cries,” her longtime friend Kathie Mar, who was at a restaurant with her earlier that day, told KGO.
She said that Lee left the restaurant and was unknowingly followed for miles to the Sunset neighborhood.
“She is definitely afraid to go out on her own now, to get in and out of her car, it’s scary,” Mar told KGO.
The San Francisco Police Department is investigating the incident.
The attack comes amid a spate of crimes against Asian Americans.
The coronavirus pandemic and its suspected origins in the Chinese city of Wuhan is cited as having led to a fresh onslaught of anti-Asian discrimination in the United States that has waged on for over a year.
From March 19, 2020, to Feb. 28, there were more than 3,795 hate incidents, including verbal harassment and physical assault, against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit organization that tracks such incidents.
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