SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An 89-year-old grandmother who was brutally beaten nearly a year ago while exercising in a San Francisco park has died from her injuries.
Yik Oi Huang died Jan. 3 at a hospital where she had been in long-term care after the Jan. 8. 2019 attack in which she suffered a broken skull, arms and neck. Huang’s home was burglarized minutes after the attack.
“We had a whole year with grandmother and feel that it is time to let go,” Sasanna Yee, a granddaughter of Huang, told the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday. “She’s now in a much better place than the hospital room, connected with tubes and spending so many nights by herself.”
Keonte Gathron, 19, was charged in the beating and is in custody awaiting trial. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have charged Gathron with attempted murder and will consider new charges following Huang’s death, said Alex Bastian, spokesman for the district attorney’s office, on Monday.
Chinese Americans have complained of crimes against their elderly and pleaded with city leaders for greater police protection. In November, a group of men attacked three older men in San Francisco’s Chinatown after one of the attackers ripped a cell phone from a man’s hand.
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