China News Service, February 15th. According to the US "World Journal" report, one day after Thanksgiving in 2021, 33-year-old homeless Perez (Elisaul Perez) and living in Corona, Queens, New York, United States, from Liaoning, China. After an argument, 62-year-old Ms. Ma threw a stone at the other party's head, causing the other party's life to be in critical condition. She was charged with first-degree assault and harassment.
Following the unanimous recommendation of the city police's Citizen Hate Crimes Review Team, the case is now being re-investigated by police for possible alleged "hate crime".
Internal sources said that when the City Police Citizens Hate Crime Review Team asked law enforcement officers why they did not file a "hate crime" case at the time, the law enforcement officers replied that there was no surveillance video that the suspect was involved in a hate crime, and when asked why it was not an attempted murder. (attempted murder), the law enforcement officers did not give a clear answer.
Devorah Halberstam, head of the city police's Citizen Hate Crimes Review Team, also said that when a suspect has no apparent motive, but attacks, for example, a Jew wearing a yarmulke, it should be investigated in the direction of a possible hate crime.
After the incident last year, Perez was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree assault with maiming, first-degree intentional assault, second-degree assault and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, and was later transferred to the New York State Superior Court in Queens. The court was asked why the case was not filed as a hate crime. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said that on the day of the incident, Perez claimed that he attacked the other party because Ms. Ma "disturbed" him to sleep, and there was no evidence yet. Shows that he committed crimes against the victim's ethnicity and cannot be charged with a hate crime.
Previously, Perez had been arrested 14 times, and in the past year alone, he had at least nine different cases pending on charges including robbery, assault and public indecency. Suspected of assaulting another Asian woman from behind with a piece of wood, but was only charged with a misdemeanor of third-degree assault.
The 62-year-old Ms. Ma was in a coma for nearly a month after she was hit on the head with a stone by Perez. At present, during the two-month recovery, she has gradually regained her cognition, although she is still unable to speak. But he has been able to nod or shake his head to respond to the inquiries of people around him, and he can also raise and lower his hands as instructed, making relatives and friends extremely happy.
(Zheng Yiyan)