Police arrested two people Saturday in connection with Thursday's filmed attack that left an elderly California man dead. Send him story tips at lucas.manfredi@fox.com. An 84-year-old man was killed after he was brutally attacked on a San Francisco street. She clutched a few sheets of paper in one hand. When I see photos of these Asian elders who have been attacked, the actor Simu Liu wrote in Variety, I see the embodiment of my own parents journey; their dreams and their struggles, their sorrow and their unwavering optimism. In November, another old man spat in her direction as her sons rode their scooters by the bay. It was heartbreaking. Today she had prepared a speech and printed a few copies to distribute to reporters. The 2023 salary cap has already been set . In April, Monthanus and Eric attended a rally opposite City Hall, where a hundred or so people gathered on a sandy plaza for speeches and martial-arts demonstrations. Monthanus gave the nurse her fathers name, his medical-record number and his six prescriptions, which included a high dose of blood thinners. 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. Being found guilty of a hate crime would not extend such a sentence significantly, but the designation has always symbolized more to victims and their families: the difference between calling out prejudice and denying it. And the headlines were preoccupied with the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd. They said they didnt have the capacity to track racism, Jeung says. His public defender, Sliman Nawabi, challenged the murder charge, arguing that Watson did not intend to kill Vicha. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! 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. Wans group, Community Youth Center, responded by opening a new office in Bayview-Hunters Point, where the attacks occurred. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. },false) 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. That he still had a life ahead of him. SAN FRANCISCO Weary of being cooped inside during the pandemic, . Even without much publicity, we have already received a strong response from the community, who want their voices heard, Jeung wrote in the groups first report. Monthanus and Eric posed for photos and signed a petition to recall Chesa Boudin, as people stopped to greet them with elbow bumps and condolences. ga('ads.send', { Among Asian-Americans, many of whom have endured racist taunts, rants and worse during the coronavirus pandemic, the killing of a defenseless older man became a rallying cry. Then, in a jacket, jeans and a white baseball cap, he slipped out of the apartment, down two flights of stairs and into the foggy morning. There may be a logic behind that. . In the past week the California Legislature approved $1.4 million in funding to track and research racist incidents against Asian-Americans. SAN FRANCISCO -- A suspect has been taken into custody following a deadly explosion and fire Thursday at a home in San Francisco's Sunset District that police said was being used as a clandestine drug lab.San Francisco police identified the suspect as 53-year-old Darron Price of San Francisco. SF teen who killed 84-year-old man by shoving him to pavement pleads not guilty. Its like being bullied. Monthanus pulled him close, from behind; she didnt want him to see her crying. Left, Mr. Vicha holding his young daughter next to his wife. Monthanus arrived at the steps of the San Francisco Hall of Justice, an imposing concrete building that spans a city block, where Antoine Watson was scheduled to appear for a pretrial hearing. He has pled not guilty to charges of murder and elder abuse causing death. Their landlord had sent a series of noise complaints and eviction warnings. 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. Instead, he paused for a moment and turned right, as though whatever caught his eye made him decide to change course. The San Francisco District Attorney's office told KPIX 5 on Monday that their detention motion to hold 19-year-old Antoine Watson without bail was granted by the court. she trailed off and let out a deep sigh. Mr. Vicha went on to study at Thammasat University in Bangkok, one of the countrys most prestigious institutions. Earlier that week, two more videos emerged from New York City of a man in Times Square stomping on a woman on her way to church; of a man punching and choking another man on the J train. }) Antoine Watson held in attack on 84-year-old victim. },false) When Monthanus had a gripe with the landlord or a stranger who crossed her, he would tell her to let it go, to leave it to karma. Monthanus and Eric voted for him. Everyone fell silent. Monthanus wore a black wool cloak over a pleated dress that flew up as the boat pulled away from the dock. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/magazine/vicha-ratanapakdee.html. 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. Investigators interviewed some 100 people and reviewed 175,000 computer files, some of which indicated that the gunman had visited white-supremacist websites. On that morning a number of security cameras in the area captured Mr. Watson banging a car with his hand, according to Mr. Boudin, the district attorney. She wakes up crying; she goes to sleep crying, Steiner said. He died shortly after being rushed to a hospital. San Francisco police arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of murder following a recent attack on an 84-year-old man in the Anza Vista neighborhood. 84-year-old San Francisco resident Vicha Ratanapakdee was the target of the brazen and unprovoked daytime attack last Thursday morning. In the next life, I hope Ill get to be your daughter again. Patrol officers' body camera footage of the encounter led officers to later identify Watson as the suspect in the murder of Ratanapakdee. In reference to the alleged attacker Antoine Watson, Boudin told the Times that "It appears that the defendant was in some sort of a temper tantrum." . He had guided her through lifes big decisions, her moments of uncertainty and doubt. The incident was caught on camera, galvanizing the national Stop Asian Hate movement. He didnt take anything from my father, not even the tablet, she says. Within one week of the websites start, Stop AAPI Hate received 673 reports of verbal and physical attacks, as well as other forms of harassment, like spitting, coughing and online threats. When Monthanus talked about these incidents, how the outside world didnt feel safe anymore, her father would ask, Is it really that bad? Im not a lawyer. window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { Officers arrested Antoine Watson on Saturday after serving a warrant at a Daly City home. Security footage showed the assailant R A.Cecil Williams told The New York Times in an article about the 2010 protest. Police officers issued him a citation. When a sibling bullies another sibling, and then they go to school, and then they bully other kids, its like a chain reaction., Then there was Monthanus and Eric. He Came From Thailand to Care For Family. ET on March 15. Vicha Ratanapakdee as he is knocked to the ground Thursday by an attacker later identified as 19-year-old Antoine Watson in San Francisco, at left, and Vicha in an undated photo, at right. In an unprovoked attack, Antoine Watson, 19, charged at Vichar Ratanapakdee, 84, on Thursday during the senior's morning walk. People are grieving. As she watched the parade of flowers and ashes float out to sea, she spoke to him. One witness at the scene told officers that he saw . 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. Monthanus was alone in the room with her sister on FaceTime. Hes 19 years old to be in jail. But leaders of the Bay Area Asian community say crime statistics are misleading because Asian-American residents, especially immigrants, often do not report assaults or robberies out of mistrust of the system or language barriers. "These violent assaults have a devastating impact on our community as they are part of an alarming rise in anti-Asian American hate during the COVID-19 pandemic," Stop AAPI Hate co foundersManjusha Kulkarni and Cynthia Choi said in a joint statement. Will Lex Ham, right, and Max Leung, center, distributed information on how to report a hate crime in San Franciscos Chinatown this month. Its not because we feel bad, Monthanus told me one evening while sitting on the bed where her father used to sleep, Titus playing video games nearby. February 4, 2021 / 6:00 AM He was arrested along with Maylasia Goo, 20 . He disliked the chilly and wet San Francisco winter and missed his favorite southern Thai dishes and his extended family and friends. First published on February 4, 2021 / 6:00 AM. Image: San Francisco District Attorney . There was no longer any way to ignore the violence that was happening to people who look like us., Antoine Watson, a 19-year-old resident of neighboring Daly City, was arrested two days after the attack and charged with murder and elder abuse. 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. During the pandemic, she persuaded him to avoid shopping and stick to outdoor walks. There had been so many attacks since the one on her father. A young man in a gas mask and a bulletproof vest said he had flown in from New York City after seeing the video. Last week, Mayor London Breed, joined by Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Chesa Boudin, said violence in San Francisco would not be tolerated and that any perpetrators would "be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law," especially those who targeted children or the elderly. In March, just before the country went into lockdown, a woman swung at Monthanus outside a hospital; she ducked the punch before running across the street. That afternoon, the couple taped their first interview, with the KTVU reporter Evan Sernoffsky, near the courthouse steps. After the last court hearing, Monthanus called the victims advocate assigned to her by the district attorneys office to request a Thai translator. There will be consequences. Anyone who thinks San Francisco is an easy touch, you need to think twice." . My wife and I thought, Could it be? Jeung recalled. The killing of a Thai man in America has given voice to a united community under the umbrella of an Asian-American identity. 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. 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. In a quiet room upstairs draped in gold and red, she knelt before a shrine of Buddhas, vases filled with fresh tulips and a black-and-white portrait of her father. 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. Surveillance video from a camera across the street captured the moment of impact. Her father had been assaulted and taken to a hospital, a police officer said. 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. }); Some assailants have yelled slurs while throwing a punch or slashing at their victims with a knife. Their desire to make sense of Vichas death, to understand what motivated it, placed them in the center of a conversation so much broader than their own. Several young people carried signs with an illustration of a 75-year-old Chinese woman who, a few weeks earlier, was punched by a white man and then fought back by whacking him with a wooden board. SAN FRANCISCO, CAA San Francisco African-American teen accused of murdering 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee in January 2021 was ordered to stand trial, a judge ruled Friday.. Anita Nabha, 20-year-old Antoine Watson's attorney, said he was distressed after a "stressful encounter with police hours earlier" and may not have known the man was elderly, reports the San . The whole family is in deep agony, Jennifer Steiner, a longtime friend whom Antoines mother chose to speak on her behalf, told me. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.