An Asian man who was left in a coma after being attacked last spring died of his injuries on New Year’s Eve. This was eight months after the night a suspect brutally stomped on him in East Harlem, police announced.
Yao Pan Ma, 61, died on December 31 after the April 23 attack left him hospitalized with serious injuries.
According to authorities, the suspect struck the victim on the back and made her fall to the ground. He then allegedly proceeded to kick him several times in the head before running off. The video tweeted by the police appears to show the brutal stomp to the head.
Jarrod Powell, 49, was arrested four days after the attack for allegedly being responsible for the attack on the 61-year-old man. He was handcuffed for two felony assault counts as a hate crime and one count of attempted murder. His charges are expected to be updated now that the investigation has turned into a homicide.
Powell was initially charged only with serious battery, but after an investigation by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, the charges were raised. When asked by reporters about the attack, Powell said, “I was macerated.”
Our sister chain NBC New York he learned that it was a tip from a homeless fellow that led to Powell’s arrest.
It was unclear if Powell had an attorney who could comment on the allegations against him.
The April attack came amid a wave of racially motivated attacks on the Asian community. It also echoed a similar incident captured on camera in Hell’s Kitchen the previous month, where a 65-year-old woman was repeatedly kicked.
A man on probation for killing his own mother was arrested in that case.
At the time of the attack Hell’s Kitchen, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had open more than a dozen hate crime cases against Asians this year alone.
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