2 Asian American girls stabbed in San Francisco assault

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Police arrested a man who they claim stabbed two Asian American women without warning in San Francisco’s mid-market area Tuesday afternoon.

The officers were sent to 4th and Stockton Streets just before 5 p.m. and found the wounded women who were being rushed to a hospital. There was no immediate word about their terms.

Witnesses told KPIX-TV that one woman appeared to be older and the other in her thirties. They told the station that a man clutching a knife was walking down Market Street as he approached a bus stop, stabbing the women and then walking away.

A 54-year-old man from San Francisco was arrested a few hours later on suspicion of the attack, police said.

Police did not immediately indicate whether the women were targeted or whether the attack could be a hate crime.

Asian Americans have been the target of several unprovoked attacks in the San Francisco Bay Area in recent months.

Prosecutors last week brought assault and hate crimes charges against a man charged with an attack in which he allegedly shouted racist slurs before knocking down Carl Chan, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.

An 83-year-old Vietnamese man was knocked down in various attacks in San Francisco in March and broke his neck in the fall. A 77-year-old woman was attacked in a similar manner. In both cases, the police arrested a man for assaulting and mistreating the elderly.

Another 83-year-old man was knocked out in February, fractured a hip, and spent weeks in the hospital and in rehabilitation.