Watson and his associate, 20-year-old Malaysia Goo, were arrested on January 30 without incident. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, For Sarah Wan, a community organizer who has been helping victims of violence in San Francisco, the debate brought back memories from 2010, when hundreds gathered outside City Hall to protest a series of similar reports. It was the first court appearance of 19-year-old Daly City resident Antoine Watson since he was arrested for the assault this past weekend. Why was no one intervening? She wanted to keep him alive. The neighbor didnt appear to speak English, but he pointed toward her and shouted, Right there! Monthanus looked down. A judge in San Francisco ruled Friday that Antoine Watson will stand trial in the brutal death of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee. Video footage shows the teen running at Ratanapakdee and pushing him over, knocking him to the ground. For weeks, Monthanus Ratanapakdee urged her parents to please. Editor's note: In the wake of numerous incidents of anti-Asian assaults and increasing concern over violent crime in San Francisco, . Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. But maybe were going to be hurt forever anyway.. In the Bay Area, where Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up a quarter of the population, stories like Vichas sparked at least two opposing narratives. CALIFORNIADA RESPONDS TO ATTACKS AGAINST ELDERLY ASIANS, AS ACTIVISTS CLAIM CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC TO BLAME, A spokesperson for Boudin clarified that his comment was made "regardingMr. Watsons behavior prior to the murder" and that Boudin "charged the killing of Mr. Ratanapakdee as a murder, the most serious crime on the books.". She turned around to my son and said, Eff you, little boy. Each incident left her in shock and compelled her to attend the vigil. Pa, can you hear me? she repeated. Monthanus and her parents subscribed to a Buddhist belief that, after death, the soul takes 100 days to reach the afterlife. A homicide detective gave his condolences and said they were planning to charge the attack as a murder. In the appeal, the family asked residents in San Francisco to contact the local district attorney Chesa Boudin to ensure that Antoine Watson and Ms Maylasia Goo, a 19-year-old woman charged as an accessory to the crime, face the full force of the law for what they describe as a racially motivated hate crime. Mr. Vicha went on to study at Thammasat University in Bangkok, one of the countrys most prestigious institutions. Antoine Watson, 19, has been held in County Jail since being arrested Jan. 30 for allegedly charging into 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee two days earlier in the Anza Vista neighborhood. The family of the 84-year-old San Francisco man killed in a seemingly random attack believes it was a racist act. These shifts werent always visible, but they were there beneath the influx or exodus, beneath the mistrust and grievances, beneath what each person, Black or Asian, took away from the images of attacks flooding the news. She clutched a few sheets of paper in one hand. Police pulled over and handcuffed Antoine Watson hours before he allegedly killed an 84-year-old Thai man in San Francisco's Anza Vista neighborhood last year, according to a timeline that . In the hours before the attack, Mr. Watson had a string of setbacks. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Officers arrested Antoine Watson on Saturday after serving a warrant at a Daly City home. The rallies had become a place where the couple could not only feel less alone in their grief but also seek answers they couldnt seem to get elsewhere. Other celebrities joined in. I kept my promise, Dad, she said. But Jeung grew wary when a doctor asked him if he had recently been to China, and again when he learned that his relatives had been marooned at a hotel near the airport after being told they couldnt board their flight back home. Two hours later, Antoine finally entered the room. 19-year-old Antoine Watson, pushing . Many are outraged after an 84-year-old Asian man was killed in San Francisco, and the District Attorney, Chesa Boudin, justified the actions of the killer. He died of a brain hemorrhage in a San Francisco hospital two days later. He has pled not guilty to charges of murder and elder abuse causing death. Owners of gun stores reported more Asian customers than ever before. Antoine Watson of Daly City, age 21, was arrested for Murder Assault w/Deadly Weapon Or Assault w/Force Likely To Produce GBI Elder Or Dependent Adult Abuse in San Francisco County, California on January 30, 2021 by San Francisco County Sheriff. Activists have argued the rise in hate incidentsshows a pattern of abuse related to blame placed on the Asian American community for the coronavirus pandemic. Who is Antoine Watson? When I see photos of these Asian elders who have been attacked, the actor Simu Liu wrote in Variety, I see the embodiment of my own parents journey; their dreams and their struggles, their sorrow and their unwavering optimism. She found it hard to follow the legal vocabulary and felt bad asking Eric to explain terms and intricacies. San Francisco District Attorneys office stated that Watson had been observed and contacted by San Francisco Police officers earlier that morning for traffic violations following a minor collision and was issued a citation. San Francisco police arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of murder following a recent attack on an 84-year-old man in the Anza Vista neighborhood. Betty Louie, an adviser to the San Francisco Chinatown Merchants Association, remembered that back when she had owned gift shops in the neighborhood, 25 years ago, "we . He gets talked about as though he's some little baby minor. It was the second such march in a week; the first, in Oakland, California, also drew dozens of supporters, many of them carrying signs demanding that racism be stamped out, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. . During the pandemic, she persuaded him to avoid shopping and stick to outdoor walks. Initial investigation by SIT/General Crimes Unit identified the male suspect as 19-year-old Antoine Watson of Daly City and the female associate as 20-year-old Maylasia Goo of Daly City. . Wheres Grandpa? Troy asked her. }); . In a New York Times article, Boudin says Antoine Watson was having "some sort of temper tantrum," a term more often used to describe toddlers, ABC7 reported. In the . Why you looking at me? and then a crushing sound., Watson pleaded not guilty. The killing of Vicha was so plain as day, said Will Lex Ham, a New York-based actor, who after watching the video flew from New York to San Francisco to help lead protests and safety patrols in Asian neighborhoods. Thats when I was like: This is more than some kind of accident or robbery or assault. Less than 24 hours later, a spokesman for the Cherokee County sheriff reduced the rampage to the act of a sex addict having a really bad day; then it was revealed that the same spokesman reportedly promoted T-shirts calling the coronavirus an IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA. The rage boiled over. Eric complimented his vest and said he thought about wearing his. She remains puzzled why on the morning of the attack he left without his Buddhist amulet, a talisman of protection that he always wore around his neck. Since her fathers death, she and Eric agreed that no one would go out at night without him. Allen Martin reports on the first court appearance by the 19-year-old suspect who fatally assaulted an 84-year-old San Francisco man last week (2-3-2021) At one point, one group may emerge because theyve got greater population, and another group feels pushed out feels like they dont have a voice anymore, the Rev. Her father had been assaulted and taken to a hospital, a police officer said. But he also suspects that the numbers reflect an animus that only deepened during lockdown. On the far side of the bridge, where the bay meets the Pacific, the engine stopped. You have to live longer so you can watch Titus graduate from college!. New images have continued to surface on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. Now that Mr. Vicha Ratanapakdee has died of his injuries, prosecution for this murderous hate crime is the only path to justice and community safety. Later, as more information trickled in, Eric changed stolen vehicle to a car disabled by an earlier hit-and-run; he also replaced thug with adult male, after watching an episode of S.W.A.T. in which a Black cop explained the words racist undertones to his partner. Bei der Nutzung unserer Websites und Apps verwenden wir, unsere Websites und Apps fr Sie bereitzustellen, Nutzer zu authentifizieren, Sicherheitsmanahmen anzuwenden und Spam und Missbrauch zu verhindern, und, Ihre Nutzung unserer Websites und Apps zu messen, personalisierte Werbung und Inhalte auf der Grundlage von Interessenprofilen anzuzeigen, die Effektivitt von personalisierten Anzeigen und Inhalten zu messen, sowie, unsere Produkte und Dienstleistungen zu entwickeln und zu verbessern. }); Monthanus wondered at first, her mind thick with shock. Watson, the suspect identified in Ratanapakdee's murder,wasarrested and chargedwith murder and elder abuse. Eric, who grew up near San Jose, described himself as someone who never thought much about race during his upbringing. stay inside. Klicken Sie auf Alle ablehnen, wenn Sie nicht mchten, dass wir und unsere Partner Cookies und personenbezogene Daten fr diese zustzlichen Zwecke verwenden. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Watson was arrested along with a female associate he was with at the time of the assault. Now all that remained was the memory of him, the sound of his voice in her head. Her hope was for all people to work together, and not blame each other. Market data provided by Factset. Among Asian-Americans, many of whom have endured racist taunts, rants and worse during the coronavirus pandemic, the killing of a defenseless older man became a rallying cry. Monthanus arrived at the steps of the San Francisco Hall of Justice, an imposing concrete building that spans a city block, where Antoine Watson was scheduled to appear for a pretrial hearing. I was like, There is something going on here. At the first few rallies they attended, Eric casually surveyed attendees, asking whether they had ever been spit on or pushed and what the race of the perpetrator was. Youre going to survive, Dad, Monthanus told him. Two days after Vicha died, Eric created a GoFundMe page to raise money for the funeral, which included a photo of Vicha and a description of his assailant derived from a mix of facts and raw emotion: A despicable 19-year-old thug that came to his neighborhood in a stolen vehicle and decided to prove how tough he was by brutalizing a senior citizen, Eric wrote. A photograph of Vicha Ratanapakdee that hangs in his daughters home.CreditKevin Kunishi for The New York Times. He told Monthanus that when the time came, he wanted to be scattered in the bay, the place that became his home. That evening, the couple stood at the doorway to her fathers room on the third-floor intensive-care unit. A photograph of Vicha Ratanapakdee that hangs in his daughters home. Evan Sernoffsky reports. 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. ga('ads.send', { He had just gone to dinner with a few relatives visiting from Beijing. She is a 2021-22 Knight-Wallace reporting fellow at the University of Michigan and an inaugural recipient of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/magazine/vicha-ratanapakdee.html. During her own speech that day, which she wrote by hand and rehearsed the night before, Monthanus told the crowd to call the city, including the police, for help when necessary. The footage is grainy and brief: A tall figure suddenly darts across a street and slams into a much smaller one; the smaller figure crumples onto the pavement and doesnt get back up; the white baseball cap flutters to the ground, like a leaf falling from a tree. Vicha and Jintana Ratanapakdee on their wedding day in 1970. a mob descended on the Capitol early that month, Family of 84-Year-Old Killed in S.F. Within one week of the websites start, Stop AAPI Hate received 673 reports of verbal and physical attacks, as well as other forms of harassment, like spitting, coughing and online threats. Then, on March 16, a white gunman in the Atlanta area drove to several businesses and shot eight people to death. On that morning a number of security cameras in the area captured Mr. Watson banging a car with his hand, according to Mr. Boudin, the district attorney. In April, while patrolling San Franciscos Chinatown, a former mayor and son of immigrants from Taishan and Hong Kong pointed to the bank across the street and told me his mother was mugged there a few years ago. As she replayed the footage again and again, Monthanus kept coming back to the same conclusion. In several prime-time interviews, including on Nightline and CNN, Eric went on to suggest that Vichas death was not a random outlier but a result of one race targeting another. }); In March, just before the country went into lockdown, a woman swung at Monthanus outside a hospital; she ducked the punch before running across the street. When we go to the beach we can dream that he is with us., She plans to bring the other urn back to her fathers hometown in southern Thailand, where the local Buddhist temple has a stupa that holds the familys remains. A monk leaned over and gently shook Vichas ashes into the lapping waves. The suspect was booked on suspicion of murder, elder abuse, and assault with a deadly weapon, KTVU reported. But I dont want it to be like that. A witness told the police they heard a voice shouting, Why you lookin at me? twice before hearing Ratanapakdee, prosecutors said. . For Mr. Vicha, who stood 5 feet 6 inches and weighed 113 pounds, the attack was fatal. SAN FRANCISCO Weary of being cooped inside during the pandemic, . There is absolutely zero evidence that Mr. Ratanapakdees ethnicity and age was a motivating factor in being assaulted, Nawabi said. His wife suggested that he have some coffee first; he told her he wouldnt be gone for long, whispering so as not to wake the kids. Chan shared a photo of the person he said attacked him, who appeared to be Black, with reporters. Weitere Informationen ber die Verwendung Ihrer personenbezogenen Daten finden Sie in unserer Datenschutzerklrung und unserer Cookie-Richtlinie. Police say their suspect Antoine Watson, 19, attacked the senior along Anza Vista and Fortuna . After the last court hearing, Monthanus called the victims advocate assigned to her by the district attorneys office to request a Thai translator. Monthanus gave the nurse her fathers name, his medical-record number and his six prescriptions, which included a high dose of blood thinners. She felt similarly snubbed after asking the advocate about applying for compensation for lost wages. By then, Boudin had told reporters that there was no evidence from the police suggesting that Vichas death was motivated by racial animus. San Francisco police say their suspect Antoine Watson, 19, attacked the senior along Anza Vista and Fortuna Avenues Thursday morning. Mourners have left flowers and condolences by a garage door at the spot where Mr. Vicha was attacked in the Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco. They will all be together.. Since his retirement in 1996 from Kasikornbank, one of Thailands largest financial institutions, Mr. Vicha had traveled between San Francisco, where his eldest daughter lives, and Thailand, where his youngest does. These laws can add time to an underlying sentence; in California, they can extend a sentence by three years. SAN FRANCISCO -- A suspect has been taken into custody following a deadly explosion and fire Thursday at a home in San Francisco's Sunset District that police said was being used as a clandestine drug lab.San Francisco police identified the suspect as 53-year-old Darron Price of San Francisco. When Monthanus talked about these incidents, how the outside world didnt feel safe anymore, her father would ask, Is it really that bad? There had been so many attacks since the one on her father. Another witness said he heard a voice yelling: Why you looking at me? eventAction: 'click_image_ads' Saturday evening at approximately 8:45 p.m., officers served a search warrant on the 500 block of Lisbon Street in Daly City and located Watson and Goo, who were arrested without incident. San Francisco News, Restaurants . In July, however, the F.B.I. Im not a lawyer. Mom, you know what? There was no longer any way to ignore the violence that was happening to people who look like us., Antoine Watson, a 19-year-old resident of neighboring Daly City, was arrested two days after the attack and charged with murder and elder abuse. Its the everyday little microaggressions and little nuances thats harder to tackle.. I met Monthanus one breezy afternoon in April at Wat Nagara Dhamma, a Buddhist temple outfitted inside a small two-story house across the street from Golden Gate Park. Monthanus could now see her father enter the frame as he climbed up the hill and to a corner where he would have continued straight. Six of the victims two women of Chinese descent, four women of Korean descent worked at the businesses targeted by the gunman, an unequivocal sign for many of those watching that he acted out of hatred, misogyny and racism. On Jan. 15, he received the first shot of the Moderna vaccine. [1] [2] [3] The assault was captured on a CCTV camera . Crime data from the district attorney offices in San Francisco County and Alameda County, which includes Oakland, show that people of Asian descent were less likely last year to be victims of crimes than other ethnic groups. And the fact that another human being would do that to an elderly senior in our community is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen," said the mayor. The mainstream media does not spotlight our stories enough, Nguyen said into the camera, urging her vast following to share the story and tag CNN and MSNBC. Inside, Monthanus held her composure as her frustration grew. The San Francisco District Attorney has filed murder charges and elder abuse causing death charges against the 19-year-old suspect in the case, Antoine Watson, calling the crime a "brutal . 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Market data provided by Factset. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. His comments tugged at a bigger, messier debate about race that had been building around the attacks. Im not a judge. Let's dispel the myth right now that there are no consequences for committing crimes in San Francisco," Breed said. Anyone can read what you share. He ordered one after Vichas death, along with a few cans of pepper spray and security cameras he installed around their apartment. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Knowing what happened with SARS, how Asians were going to get shunned, harassed, he says, referring to the 2003 outbreak, I was just personally and sociologically alerted to racism., Jeung set up search alerts for Asian American and discrimination. The results confirmed his fears. Vicha had lost so much blood by then that even if a second operation succeeded, he would almost certainly lose his most basic functions for the rest of his life. As Vicha recovered from each operation, Monthanus had slept on the floor next to his bed, comforting him through the pain. . A nurse came in and explained that the surgeon hadnt been able to stop the bleeding. We're less than two weeks away from the start of NFL free agency, which begins at 4 p.m. She wakes up crying; she goes to sleep crying, Steiner said. For his family, the death has been devastating both in California and abroad. Where did the assault happen? 'Very open to the idea': Julia Wandelt takes DNA test to verify if she is missing Swiss girl Livia Schepp, Kayla Lemieux: Teacher with prosthetic Z-cup breasts suspended WITH PAY after pics show her dressed as man, Michael Schneider: Psychic detective gives '100%' verdict on whether Julia Wandelt is Madeleine McCann, Lindsay Clancy case: Psychologist reveals psychosis red flags family members could have spotted, 'I'd be horrified if my kids did that': Internet slams eight-year-old's pregnant mom for enabling 'disgusting' behavior. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern, indem Sie auf unseren Websites und Apps auf den Link Datenschutz-Dashboard klicken. This is a hate crime.. His brothers and sisters are there, Ms. Monthanus said. Two suspects have been arrested. San Francisco Mayor, Police Chief, DA Condemn Fatal Assaults On Seniors; Vow To Address Violence, denounced the recent rise in violent crimes in the city, 76-year-old private investigator Jack Palladino, Suspects Sought In Home Invasion Robbery Of Elderly Woman In San Francisco, Public File for KBCW-TV / KBCW 44 Cable 12. I think a lot of that grief and anger and scapegoating continues to be directed toward Asians.. Court documents give the victims name as Gilbert Diaz, and Carl Chan, a community leader and president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, said the victim was Latino. For months Mr. Vicha had been pining to return to Thailand but was unable to because of the pandemic. Stories like Vichas inspired some to start neighborhood-patrol groups to accompany elders on their walks to and from home, scan the streets for suspicious activity and, in some cases, call the police to intervene. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Even without much publicity, we have already received a strong response from the community, who want their voices heard, Jeung wrote in the groups first report. Breed said that she had the support of both the police department and the District Attorney's office in her stance. A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled Friday that the man accused of murdering an 84-year-old Thai immigrant a case that invigorated a movement to stop violence . Watson allegedly carried out the deadly attack on senior citizen Vicha Ratanapakdee in the citys Anza Vista neighborhood on January 28, 2021. A young man in a gas mask and a bulletproof vest said he had flown in from New York City after seeing the video. After the attack, as her father lay on the ground, a couple driving by stopped to place a blanket on him. The suspects have been identified as Antoine Watson, 19, and Maylasia Goo, 20, both of . She tried calling it. Around midnight, after Eric and the boys went to bed, the two women drove to the corner with a bucket, gloves and a dish brush. At one point, the couple agreed to stop going to rallies for a while. Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year old immigrant from Thailand, was preparing to go on his early morning walk in the quiet Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco on Saturday, January 28, 2021. At a vigil in Madison Park in Oakland the week after the Atlanta shootings, a mother stood with her young son, holding a sign with Vichas face on it. Surveillance video from a camera across the street captured the moment of impact. 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. In an unprovoked attack, Antoine Watson, 19, charged at Vichar Ratanapakdee, 84, on Thursday during the senior's morning walk. I have no chance to talk, how Im feeling right now, how I deal with it every time I do laundry, every time I drive to work, she said, looking in her rearview mirror, tears streaming. A surveillance video captured what happened next. One was that there was a pattern of Black perpetrators and Asian victims, that the pattern was a symptom of a tension dating back decades. Earlier that week, two more videos emerged from New York City of a man in Times Square stomping on a woman on her way to church; of a man punching and choking another man on the J train. In an unprovoked attack, Antoine Watson, 19, charged at Vichar Ratanapakdee, 84, on Thursday during the senior's morning walk. Everybody I talked to said it was from a Black person, he told me. a white gunman killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. By William McCurry. He always told me that if something happened to him, this must be passed on to grandchildren, she said. In each instance, the bystanders appeared to do nothing. But in practice, proving bias is difficult, especially when theres no explicit expression of it. After several weeks, the advocate replied that the office didnt have the budget to hire a translator. hitType: 'event', Considering him being 19 or even older now, he is no longer a child and is capable enough to keep his hands to himself. In reference to the alleged attacker Antoine Watson, Boudin told the Times that "It appears that the defendant was in some sort of a temper tantrum." . Its not because we feel bad, Monthanus told me one evening while sitting on the bed where her father used to sleep, Titus playing video games nearby. Monthanus wailed softly. The court system, which they thought would deliver swift justice, was confoundingly slow. In the past year, researchers and activist groups have tallied thousands of racist incidents against Asian-Americans, a surge in hate that they link to former President Donald J. Trump repeatedly referring to the coronavirus as the Chinese virus. Mr. Vichas family described his killing as racially motivated, and it spurred a campaign to raise awareness by many prominent Asian-Americans, who used the online hashtags #JusticeForVicha and #StopAsianHate. Mr. Nawabi described Mr. Watson as someone who had struggled with anger. 84-year-old San Francisco resident Vicha Ratanapakdee was the target of the brazen and unprovoked daytime attack last Thursday morning. But once he does, we should work out some kind of situation where we could forgive somehow and move on with our life. He left his home because of a family dispute and got in a traffic accident in San Francisco at 2 a.m. Last year Ms. Monthanus, Mr. Vichas daughter, was twice accosted on the street by people who told her to leave the country because, the attackers said, Asians had caused the coronavirus. There was no longer any way to ignore the violence that was happening to people who look like us, Mr. Ham said. }); Elderly Thai man in San Francisco killed by teen in unprovoked attack. When she made it to the hill, she noticed a neighbor working in his garage and asked if he knew where the episode happened the other day. She had even persuaded him to leave his wallet at home, at least for another few weeks, when he was scheduled for his second shot of the coronavirus vaccine. June 18, 2022. Another was that such a pattern was not only false, but that the belief in it was a racist misperception. Titus, dressed in a black suit and a pair of his grandfathers leather loafers that fit tight around his growing feet, chased his little brother around the deck. No one had been able to identify Vicha his pockets contained a quarter and a pair of keys. The next day, Monthanus tried to retrace her fathers steps. SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) - An 84-year-old California man is dead after a seemingly random daylight attack in the Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco, video from ABC 7 News shows. },false) Surveillance video showed Ratanapakdee walking in the driveway of a home when the suspect barrels him into the victim violently, knocking him to the ground before the suspect casually walks away in the same direction he came from. October 2021. Eric also busied himself with emails to architects and building managers in Chinatown, where he was planning a mural a few blocks from the Dragon Gate.