San Francisco police arrest three East Bay residents in current Chinatown assault
SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco police said Wednesday they had arrested three men in connection with a brazen attack on a 67-year-old man in a Chinatown laundromat last month, one of several recent attacks on elderly Asian Americans in the Bay Area.
The victim, whose identity is unknown, was sitting in the laundromat on the evening of February 23 when three men walked in and one of them kicked him in the chest. The trio then threw him to the ground, ambushed and robbed him and fled, according to police and surveillance tapes of the attack. The victim was treated with non-life threatening injuries.
Police arrested the three suspects Wednesday morning, all 19-year-olds from the city of Antioch, who were also wanted in connection with car break-ins just before the laundromat attack, the San Francisco police said in a statement. Police seized evidence during the arrests, including two pistols and a window punch, believed to have been used in the spate of crime, the statement said. It identified the three men as Calvin Berschell, Jason Orozco, and Nolowde Beshears.
Police said Wednesday that they are stepping up patrols in Asian neighborhoods following the deadly Georgia shootings that killed six Asian women and two others and the recent wave of violence in the Bay Area. The attacks have sparked new fears among members of the Asian-American community, who have become increasingly victims of harassment and violence since the coronavirus spread across the United States
At around the same time police announced increased patrols, two more attacks took place in San Francisco, KPIX-TV reported.
In one of these, a 75-year-old Chinese woman was approached by a 39-year-old man who out of the blue started beating her. She responded by repeatedly beating the man with a stick. Both the perpetrator and the victim, who had badly bruised his face, were taken to a hospital, according to police.
Officials said the attacker allegedly attacked an 83-year-old Asian man in the same area recently, KPIX reported. Details of this attack were not immediately available. In both cases, the 39-year-old was investigated.
