Two elderly Asian American women were seriously injured in separate, random attacks on the streets of San Francisco this month.
An 86-year-old victim suffered a broken hip after her assault on July 10, and an 88-year-old victim suffered internal bleeding after being attacked last week, according to English and Chinese language outlet Wind Newspaper.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced charges Tuesday against 27-year-old James Lee Ramsey, an Oakland man accused in the July 21 assault.
Prosecutors said Ramsey kicked the elderly woman to the ground during the attack around 11:15 a.m. on Ellis Street.
A witness detained the suspect at the scene and Ramsey was eventually arrested by San Francisco police.
“The crimes that Mr. Ramsey is accused of are horrific. I am grateful to the witness who was able to detain him until police arrived ensuring that he did not flee,” Ms. Jenkins said in a statement. “My office, on behalf of the victims, and every San Franciscan who is fed up with brazen violence like this, will stand for justice and seek to hold him accountable for his crimes.”
Ramsey has been charged with multiple felonies, including elder abuse, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery causing serious bodily injury.
According to multiple reports, Ramsey, who is Black, had been previously arrested and charged with a hate crime for a 2021 attack on another Asian American, Carl Chan, in Oakland’s Chinatown. He was convicted of assault, but hate crime charges were dropped as part of a plea deal.
Ms. Jenkins said her office is seeking pre-trial detention for Mr. Ramsey “because of the public safety risk he poses.”
Wind reported that there is currently a warrant out for his arrest in neighboring Alameda County.
If convicted, Ramsey would face more than 10 years in prison.
The 86-year-old victim was attacked by a suspect who is described as a White man in his 30s. He remains at large.
“We are not only dealing with the crime and issues related to open drug market, homelessness, robberies and many more in Tenderloin, we Asian seniors face more challenges of having a risk of being attacked anytime when we walk in the streets. The city needs to find ways to solve the violence against us,” Mei Chen, an immigrant and resident of a Tenderloin senior housing apartment, told Wind.
Crimes against Asian Americans skyrocketed in San Francisco during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the city recorded 60 hate-related incidents against Asian Americans —- a 500% increase from the nine it witnessed in 2020.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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