An elderly woman who was attacked Wednesday on Market Street in San Francisco, the latest victim of a wave of attacks on Asians in the Bay Area, turned her assailant around, leaving him with wounds that required a trip to the hospital.
Xiao Zhen Xie spoke frankly with CBS San Francisco about the attack on his retirement home in the city, with his daughter, Dong-Mei Li, who helped translate.
“Very traumatized, very scared and that eye still bleeds,” Li told KPIX 5. “The right eye still can’t see anything and (still) bleeds and we have something to absorb the bleeding.”
His mother had a packet of ice on her face at the scene of the attack. Police said both the assailant and the victim were taken to a hospital for treatment.
Surrounded by her family, the 76-year-old, who has lived in San Francisco for 26 years, said she was quite shaken and the attack was not completely provoked. Her immediate instinct was to fight him.
He said he was only waiting at a traffic light when the suspect suddenly punched him in the left eye.
Immediately, his instincts began to defend themselves. Although he suffered injuries and needed medical attention, it was his attacker who ended up on a stretcher. He tells her, “He found the stick around the area and fought.”
John Chen, Xie’s grandson, told CBS San Francisco that his grandmother “is extremely terrified. She’s terrified even to go out.”
CBS San Francisco sporting director Dennis O’Donnell took to the stage during his morning run.
“There was a boy on a stretcher and an angry woman frustrated with a stick in her hand,” O’Donnell said. “From what I could see, she wanted more of the bunk boy and the police were holding her back.”
Witnesses told the station that they saw the woman hitting her assailant.
In a video made at the scene, the suspect is handcuffed to a stretcher with a bloodied face. The crying victim seemed to rebuke him and wave what looks like a wooden table as they take him away.
“Strike, why did you hit me?” said the woman in Chinese.
He then turned to the people who had gathered and exclaimed, “This tramp, he hit me,” as he lifted the stick he had and wept. “He hit me, this tramp,” he repeated.
Officers also say there was a second victim before, an 83-year-old Asian man.
A 39-year-old man is being investigated for both attacks and police say he is trying to determine if bias was a factor.
The family has created a GoFundMe account to help you with medical expenses.