Last July, a Chinese immigrant woman named Yanfang Wu died after being pushed to the ground in San Francisco. Now, almost nine months later, her death is back in the spotlight and igniting a firestorm as political candidates jockey for support in the influential Asian American community.
After Board President Aaron Peskin called for law enforcement to further investigate Wu’s death, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins hit back in a scathing statement accusing Peskin of seeking “attention prior to launching his expected mayoral campaign.”
Over the weekend, Mayor London Breed called on the San Francisco Police Department to release the video footage of the fatal push, forcing Police Chief Bill Scott to make the same promise on social media.
Wu, who was 63, was pushed to death on a sidewalk in the Bayview neighborhood last year. SFPD detained and questioned Thea Hopkins, according to sources, and later released her and officially ruled the fatal push as an accident. In other words, police determined that no crime was committed, and no arrests were made.
Then, on March 4, Hopkins was arrested for allegedly attacking a 71-year-old Chinese immigrant woman without provocation. The incident infuriated the Asian American community, who demanded that city leaders reopen the investigation of Wu’s death and release video of the incident. SFPD has reopened the case.
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