New York man who kicked, stomped elderly Asian-American woman killed his own mother in 2002, police say
- The victim was identified as Vilma Kari, a 65-year-old woman who immigrated from the Philippines
- Police identified the suspect as Brandon Elliot, who is on lifetime parole for fatally stabbing his mother
Police identified the suspect as Brandon Elliot, 38, a parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago. They said Elliott was the man recorded on video kicking and stomping the woman on Monday. They said Elliot was living at a hotel that serves as a homeless shelter a few blocks from the scene of the attack.
Elliot was convicted of stabbing his mother to death in the Bronx in 2002, when he was 19. He was released from prison in 2019 and is on lifetime parole. He faces charges of assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, assault and attempted assault in Monday’s attack, police said.
The victim was identified as Vilma Kari, a 65-year-old woman who immigrated from the Philippines, her daughter told The New York Times; the newspaper did not identify Kari’s daughter.
Kari was walking to church in midtown Manhattan when police said a man kicked her in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, stomped on her face, shouted anti-Asian slurs and told her “you don’t belong here” before casually walking away.
She was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday after being treated for serious injuries, a hospital spokesperson said.
The attack on Monday was among the latest in a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, and happened just weeks after a mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent. The surge in violence has been linked in part to misplaced blame for the coronavirus pandemic and former president Donald Trump’s use of racially charged terms like “Chinese virus”.