Chinese grandmother, 76, fights off attacker in San Francisco with wooden stick
- Xiao Zhen Zie is seen on video nursing a bruised eye, while the suspect, 39, is placed on a stretcher with blood dripping from his mouth
- The victim says she is now too scared and traumatised to leave her home after the unprovoked attack
A 76-year-old woman from China who fought back against a man who punched her on a downtown San Francisco street corner said the unprovoked attack left her scared and traumatised. Her alleged assailant was arrested on Thursday.
Xiao Zhen Zie told KPIX-TV in a tearful interview she was waiting to cross a downtown street on Wednesday when a 39-year-old man punched her without warning and for no reason, one of several recent attacks on elderly Asian-Americans in the Bay Area.
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Speaking in her native Taishanese dialect that was translated by her daughter, Zie said she instinctively responded by hitting the man repeatedly with a wooden stick.
A KPIX-TV employee videotaped the aftermath of the attack after he stumbled upon the scene during his morning run. Zie is seen wailing in the video as she puts an ice pack on her bruised eye while the assailant is placed on a stretcher, blood dripping from his mouth.
“Very traumatised, very scared and this eye is still bleeding,” the woman’s daughter, Dong-Mei Li, told the station as she described her mother’s injuries. “The right eye still cannot see anything.”
Zie’s grandson, John Chen, said the attack left his grandmother too terrified to leave her house.
