Vilma Kari, the Asian American woman who was beaten in a vicious hate-fueled attack in Times Square three years ago, is still living in fear and afraid to be alone in public, she revealed in a new interview.
The 65-year-old woman’s life changed when convicted murderer Brandon Elliot, 41, shoved her to the ground and kicked her in the head several times outside 360 W. 43rd St. as onlookers did nothing.
Elliot was sentenced to 15 years in prison last month for the March 2021 attack — but Kari, who is of Filipino descent, is still mentally recovering from the hate crime, which left her with a fractured pelvis and head injuries.
“As I told Mr. Eliot — ‘you put fear in my heart.’ And that fear will linger,” Kari told NBC News NOW’s “Top Story with Tom Llamas” in an interview that aired Tuesday.
“I have fear of going out by myself, I have fear of being around people,” she said.
A survey from the Asian American Foundation published last week revealed that one out of every five Asian Americans in New York City has been physically assaulted due to their race over the last year.
Alarmingly, more than half of those who were subjected to a hate incident, 54%, declined to report it to anybody, the survey found.
“The anti-Asian hate rhetoric and violence that targeted the AAPI [Asian American Pacific Islander] community in 2020 has not stopped,” Norman Chen, CEO of TAAF, said in response to the survey results.
“We’re seeing this in the continued hate, violence, and distrust towards Asian Americans New Yorkers. The othering of our community contributes not only to discrimination and prejudice in public spaces, but also erodes any efforts toward equity and inclusivity for…
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