Two Asian women of 66 and 67 years of age respectively were assaulted at the Baltimore liquor store where they worked on Tuesday night. The attacker struck them repeatedly with a cinder block.
Surveillance footage shows a man beating two Asian women with a cinder block in Baltimore, MD pic.twitter.com/7PCOY6fycL
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 7, 2021
A man is shown on the video wrestling a woman to the floor and then mercilessly hitting her with the block. Another man is present, but does nothing but watch the violence unfold. The other assault was outside the scope of the camera.
Police have arrested and charged Daryl Doles, 50 years of age, in connection with the crimes. He is facing two charges of aggravated assault at this time. It's not certain yet whether additional hate crime charges will be tagged on, according to the New York Post.
"I urge everyone to do all we can to raise awareness and to speak out against bias, hate, and violence against any members of our city and community, including Asian Americans," said former US Attorney and hate crime expert Robert Hur, who is representing the two women.
Whether there winds up being grounds for hate-crime charges or not, these attacks appear to be part of another spate of attacks targeting people of Asian descent in the US which have been going on since earlier in 2021.
On the same day earlier, two Asian women were stabbed in San Francisco while waiting for a bus. And, on Sunday, an Asian woman was attacked in Times Square and hit with a hammer by a female assailant. Police are still looking for the as-yet unidentified hammer-wielder.