SAN FRANCISCO - In two unrelated cases, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said his office has filed charges against Lawrence Thomas and Tyjone Flournoy for the murder of 76-year-old private investigator Jack Palladino, and Antoine Watson for the murder of 86-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee. Any time a family suffers a violent crime, a homicide in particular, theres questions, Boudin told me. Editor's note: In the wake of numerous incidents of anti-Asian assaults and increasing concern over violent crime in San Francisco, . Walking was how he explored San Francisco when he first arrived there from Thailand in 2000, to spend a year with Monthanus while she attended business school, and again in 2018, to help take care of her two sons. His comments tugged at a bigger, messier debate about race that had been building around the attacks. She felt similarly snubbed after asking the advocate about applying for compensation for lost wages. A photograph of Vicha Ratanapakdee that hangs in his daughters home.CreditKevin Kunishi for The New York Times. 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. During the pandemic, she persuaded him to avoid shopping and stick to outdoor walks. Ratanapakdee was walking in the Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco on the morning of January 28 when 19-year-old Antoine Watson ran across the street and violently shoved him to the ground. Its nonstop, you know? She thought about the people she had met at the rallies who had quit their jobs to patrol or speak out full time. When her mother saw the video, she stiffened. 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. Anyone can read what you share. 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. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Jaeah Lee is a magazine journalist based in San Francisco, with a focus on criminal justice. A local ABC News affiliate had posted footage from a surveillance camera. When they got home, he pulled out her phone, and instead of putting on his usual cartoons, he scrolled through her photos. We're less than two weeks away from the start of NFL free agency, which begins at 4 p.m. Yet today I still face people from the Black community who will come into our office on a weekly basis, saying that we only care about our people, that we just take their resources. 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. A San Francisco judge has ruled that a man accused of killing an 84-year-old Thai grandfather will stand trial. Officers arrested Antoine Watson, 19, and his female companion . https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/magazine/vicha-ratanapakdee.html. 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. "I can't even imagine what his family is going through right now. A photograph of Vicha Ratanapakdee that hangs in his daughters home. How long did he lie outside before an ambulance arrived? In March, Jeung says, Stop AAPI Hate received roughly 2,800 reports, about the same number he received in all of 2020. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. "Our officers identified our suspect as 19-year-old Antoine Watson of Daly City. Before his third heart operation, Vicha debated whether to go through with the procedure; he wasnt sure if he would make it. They also identified a female associate he was with at the time of the assault as 20-year-old Daly City resident Maylasia Goo. She had always looked to her father when something troubled her conscience. Watson entered a not guilty plea to charges of murder and elder abuse causing death during the brief court appearance. As Monthanus poured the water, she felt her breath shorten, bit by bit, until she was gasping for air. According to the San Francisco District Attorney's office, Watson had been observed and contacted by San Francisco Police officers earlier that morning for traffic infractions resulting in a minor collision and was issued a citation. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. These conversations surfaced the memory of Black Americans killed senselessly by Asian perpetrators, too Latasha Harlins, the young teenager carrying $2 and a bottle of orange juice, shot to death by a Korean American shopkeeper in 1991; Akai Gurley, an unarmed young father shot to death in a dark stairwell by a Chinese American police officer in 2014. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), The submissions came from 31 states and the District of Columbia, with nearly half the reports originating in California and New York. Grandpa died as a result of Antoine not being arrested for reckless driving, he said, and then not having proper services to come out and talk to him while hes out here yelling all morning., He thought about Antoines family and something his friend once told him, about how when his son had issues with another family, he would meet with them to talk about it. District Attorney responds to the . Body camera footage of the encounter led police to identify him. ga('ads.send', { Investigators interviewed some 100 people and reviewed 175,000 computer files, some of which indicated that the gunman had visited white-supremacist websites. Wenn Sie Ihre Auswahl anpassen mchten, klicken Sie auf Datenschutzeinstellungen verwalten. In late January 2020, a man died outside a restaurant in Sydney after collapsing from a heart attack. a white gunman killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. Some assailants have yelled slurs while throwing a punch or slashing at their victims with a knife. But I dont want it to be like that. There were several violent crimes in San Francisco on Thursday, the article began. Several people suggested that there was more to the video that went viral, which prompted Monthanus to walk around the block to knock on neighbors doors and ask if they would share their security-camera footage. }); They sailed toward the Golden Gate Bridge, the choppy waters jostling them as they chanted the Five Precepts. On Jan. 15, he received the first shot of the Moderna vaccine. She knew what he would say if he were here now. KGO obtained surveillance footage which apparently shows Antoine Watson, 19, knocking down Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, in front of his San Francisco home.Officers reportedly discovered Ratanapakdee on a sidewalk and rendered aid before paramedics rushed him to the hospital . Mr. Nawabi described Mr. Watson as someone who had struggled with anger. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern, indem Sie auf unseren Websites und Apps auf den Link Datenschutz-Dashboard klicken. hitType: 'event', She added thatRatanapakdee's family was "horrified" when she relayed the information. Let's dispel the myth right now that there are no consequences for committing crimes in San Francisco," Breed said. When Monthanus had a gripe with the landlord or a stranger who crossed her, he would tell her to let it go, to leave it to karma. 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. Left, Mr. Vicha holding his young daughter next to his wife. As she watched the parade of flowers and ashes float out to sea, she spoke to him. Others have injured or killed people without saying a word. Watson, the suspect identified in Ratanapakdee's murder,wasarrested and chargedwith murder and elder abuse. Ratanapakdee was brought to San Francisco General Hospital, but he eventually died on Saturday. ga('create', 'UA-67136960-15', 'auto', 'ads'); 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. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle. another video that rocketed around the internet. A teenager in San Francisco was allegedly caught on video while bum-rushing an 84-year-old man, who later died as a result of the shocking daytime attack. Lucas Manfredi is a general assignment reporter for Fox News. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/us/asian-american-hate-crimes.html. The grandmother of a teen who senselessly pushed and killed a Thai grandfather has said her grandson should walk free. Security footage, circulated widely on the internet, shows a man running towards Vicha and throwing him violently to the ground before turning around and fleeing, according to KTVU Fox 2 News.. Vicha died in hospital in the early hours of Saturday and soon after, police reportedly charged a 19-year-old man, Antoine Watson, with murder and 20-year-old female friend, Maylasia Goo, with being an . Around the same time as the Oakland rally, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who represents the Bay Area, and Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) also denounced the "white supremacy . Believe Attack Was Racially Motivated., Amanda Nguyen, a prominent activist, shared Sernoffskys report. Boudin, who started his term just a few months before the lockdown, in January 2020, inherited more than 5,000 criminal prosecutions. Im not a lawyer. He graduated from Ithaca College with a Bachelors of Science in Television-Radio. Legal Statement. window.googletag.cmd.push(function() { 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. eventAction: 'click_image_ads' ga('ads.send', { For Mr. Vicha, who stood 5 feet 6 inches and weighed 113 pounds, the attack was fatal. hitType: 'event', Donations flooded into their GoFundMe page, and they blew past their goal of $10,000 within days. Inside, Monthanus held her composure as her frustration grew. My wife and I thought, Could it be? Jeung recalled. To fully appreciate the challenges that Wan and Lacoste face requires understanding the forces that have shaped that neighborhood, and many others, over decades redlining and employment discrimination, the long shadow of multiple tech booms, the burden of street violence, inadequate mental-health care, surging homelessness, the police response to all of it. You can dial 311 or 911, she reminded them. But she and Eric feared that the trauma might manifest years, or decades, later. document.querySelector("#adunit").addEventListener('click',function(){ While it does not change the legal definition of a hate crime, the legislation commits funds to fast-track federal reviews of hate-crime investigations and approves grants for local law enforcement agencies. But he says there is no evidence to suggest it was motivated by racial animus. Please enter valid email address to continue. The neighbor didnt appear to speak English, but he pointed toward her and shouted, Right there! Monthanus looked down. The video was taken from the same angle as the clip that everyone saw, only this footage was longer. Instead, he paused for a moment and turned right, as though whatever caught his eye made him decide to change course. assault in Western Addition that led to the death an 84-year-old man, police said. (CBS), deadly attack of Vicha Ratanapakdee in the city's Anza Vista neighborhood on January 28, pled not guilty to charges of murder and elder abuse causing death, and that any perpetrators would "be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,", Public File for KBCW-TV / KBCW 44 Cable 12. Im going to take care of you. . 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This image from CCTV footage shows the moment Vicha Ratanapakdee was fatally attacked in Anza Vista, San Francisco. The group filed out to the edge of the deck. The trust-building really took us 10 years, Wan says. who was violently pushed and killed by Antoine Watson in . Where did the assault happen? District Attorney Chesa Boudin has said Goo was seated in the car and played no apparent role in the attack. Or am I just sensitive? She tried to shield them from the video, but sometimes the evening news would be on and the footage would flash by before she could turn it off. Im not a cop. Officers discovered an 84-year-old man lying on the sidewalk, rendered aid and summoned medics to transport the victim to a hospital for life-threatening injuries. According to the San Francisco District Attorney's office, Watson had been observed and contacted by San Francisco Police officers earlier that Thursday morning for traffic infractions resulting in a minor collision. The nurse who picked up, however, only had more questions. }) Why you looking at me? and then a crushing sound., Watson pleaded not guilty. Thats not who he is. Steiner, who was Antoines elementary-school principal, said he needed mental-health support, not prison time. Theres been a half-million deaths. Watson has reportedlypleaded not guilty to the incident but his lawyer admits that his client had an "outburst of rage. eventAction: 'click_ads' San Francisco police were quickly able to identify Watson as the assault suspect. (The data, though incomplete, show that hate crimes against Asian Americans were more likely to be committed by nonwhite offenders than those against Hispanics or African Americans. At the rallies they attended, every now and then a different Black man approached the microphone, or met with the couple on the sidelines, and tried his best to break the ice. let gads_event; 2021, 19-year-old Antoine Watson, was just "having some sort of temper tantrum" when he killed him. Fox News Flash top headlines are here. He was cited by the San Francisco police for running a stop sign and reckless driving and then slept that night in his car. On Twitter and elsewhere, Asian Americans lit up their feeds with an outpouring of grief and rage. In July, however, the F.B.I. . Monthanus gave the nurse her fathers name, his medical-record number and his six prescriptions, which included a high dose of blood thinners. Among the most alarming were the stories of a 57-year-old Asian woman who was pushed off a railway platform onto the tracks, and an 83-year-old Asian man who died from a head injury after being assaulted by a group of boys. When a sibling bullies another sibling, and then they go to school, and then they bully other kids, its like a chain reaction., Then there was Monthanus and Eric. The support was overwhelming and odd. Mayor London Breed and Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered condolences. . Family believes attack of 84-year-old man in San Francisco was racial motivated. A preliminary hearing for the man accused of fatally pushing Vicha Ratanapakdee in San Francisco last year commenced on Tuesday, reigniting calls for justice and an end to anti-Asian violence. But her mind swirled with bigger questions. In the next life, I hope Ill get to be your daughter again. Or is this my trauma? Believe Attack Was Racially Motivated., Vichas story joined a cluster of reports about attacks on Asian elders in four cities. She watched him for several more hours, his hand in hers. You have to live longer so you can watch Titus graduate from college!. He died shortly after arrival in the hospital. In the months since her father died, she and Eric had spent so much of their time at rallies, at court or on the phone with reporters and lawyers. If you miss Grandpa, she told him, go to his photo and say hi. Troy walked up to two framed portraits of his grandfather that now hung side by side on the wall. } Before sitting down, he glanced toward the back of the room and smiled when he recognized a young man. In an unprovoked attack, Antoine Watson, 19, charged at Vichar Ratanapakdee, 84, on Thursday during the senior's morning walk. . The way he greeted her with relief when she came home late from work. Watson, along with his accomplice in the killing, pled "not guilty" at their court hearings. Chan shared a photo of the person he said attacked him, who appeared to be Black, with reporters. These stories have prompted continuous news coverage and social-media obsession, and beneath it all there lurks a desire to understand what is driving the attacks and how, exactly, race is playing a role. The family of the 84-year-old San Francisco man killed in a seemingly random attack believes it was a racist act. 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. San Francisco's chief prosecutor addressed the January death of Vicha Ratanapakdee at a time when many Asian Americans feel targeted based on their race. $300,000 a year is roughly what a family of four needs to earn to live a middle-class lifestyle in the Bay Area. San Francisco police say their suspect Antoine Watson, 19, attacked the senior along Anza Vista and Fortuna Avenues Thursday morning. Hi! he shouted over and over. More than 500 days after the incident, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Darwin ruled that the evidence presented by the District Attorney's Office is enough for a murder trial. Pa, can you hear me? she repeated. He died shortly after being rushed to a hospital. Members of the department's arson task force took . She worried how the exposure affected her sons. She lowered her head and opened her palms to touch the rug three times. MEAWW brings you the best content from its global team of For his grieving family, the reckoning hasnt gone far enough. By William McCurry. San Francisco News, Restaurants . Evan Sernoffsky reports. }); Im just a human being who feels things., He pondered this while sitting in his car, in the spot where Antoine reportedly parked on the morning of the attack on Vicha. He washed his face, put on a baseball cap and face mask and told his wife he would have the coffee she had prepared for him when he returned. Around 10 p.m., a new search result popped up. Watson, the court documents state, had been cited for "reckless driving, speeding and failure to stop at a stop sign" in the hours before the attack. In order to raise 10 children in the San Francisco Bay Area, we should assume Antoine Watson's parents make at least $300,000 a year. She could feel the weight of the pandemic starting to lift, but where there had once been anticipation, she now felt dread. Any other narrative is false, misleading, and divisive. Nawabi added that Watson comes from a biracial family background and had no knowledge of Mr. Ratanapakdees race or vulnerabilities since the elderly man was wearing a mask, hat, sweater and jeans. A.Cecil Williams told The New York Times in an article about the 2010 protest. He has pleaded not guilty but his lawyer admits that his client had an outburst of rage.. In March, a man waving a Laotian flag told a small crowd at a protest in San Mateo, Calif., that Vicha reminded him of his grandparents, who collected cans to get by, which was why he decided to go on the front lines and patrol Chinatown in Oakland. When Wan first set up her branch there, the Bayview was in the midst of a drastic demographic shift that was occurring throughout the region, marked by an influx of Asians and an exodus of Black residents. 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. Considering him being 19 or even older now, he is no longer a child and is capable enough to keep his hands to himself. 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. After her graduation, when Ms. Monthanus married and decided to stay in San Francisco, Mr. Vicha and his wife came to help raise their grandchildren. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Then, on March 16, a white gunman in the Atlanta area drove to several businesses and shot eight people to death. Three days later an attacker shoved a 91-year-old man in Oaklands Chinatown to the ground, another video that rocketed around the internet. She wakes up crying; she goes to sleep crying, Steiner said. But the legal tampering window opens two days before that on March 13, where teams will be able to negotiate with free agents before the official start of the 2023 season. Ms. Monthanus says she and her family will charter a boat under the Golden Gate Bridge and scatter some into the Pacific Ocean. Poypiti Amatatham contributed reporting from Bangkok. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. A monk leaned over and gently shook Vichas ashes into the lapping waves. LAPD INVESTIGATES KOREATOWN ASSAULT ON AIR FORCE VETERAN DENNY KIM AS POSSIBLE HATE CRIME, According to theTimes, Boudin saidthatRatanapakdee'sdeath was heinous, but that there is no evidence to suggest the attackwas motivated by racial animus. 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. Even inside the anti-Asian-hate movement, every expression of grief and resolution differed. or redistributed. This was the 70th. But he also suspects that the numbers reflect an animus that only deepened during lockdown. if(document.querySelector("#ads")){ . I want him to be close to me, she said. 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. },false) Send him story tips at lucas.manfredi@fox.com. The San Francisco District Attorney's office told KPIX 5 on Monday that their detention motion to hold 19-year-old Antoine Watson without bail was granted by the court. 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. A victims advocate assigned by the district attorneys office helped the couple apply for state reimbursement for the cremation, the funeral and other expenses. They have any language to help anybody.. That week, on Feb. 4, the couple spoke with San Franciscos district attorney, Chesa Boudin, on a call. 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. Let it go. There is absolutely zero evidence that Mr. Ratanapakdees ethnicity and age was a motivating factor in being assaulted, Nawabi said. She found it hard to follow the legal vocabulary and felt bad asking Eric to explain terms and intricacies. window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('impressionViewable', function(event) { The grandmother of a teen who senselessly pushed and killed a Thai grandfather has said her grandson should walk free. 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. People use the "young teenager" label on him as an excuse to obviously protect him and his behavior. 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. "You will be held accountable by both the police and the District Attorney. A homicide detective gave his condolences and said they were planning to charge the attack as a murder. ga('ads.send', { Last week, Mayor London Breed, joined by Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Chesa Boudin, said violence in San Francisco would not be tolerated and that any perpetrators would "be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law," especially those who targeted children or the elderly. . First published on February 4, 2021 / 6:00 AM. Verbal harassment made up 70.9% of incidents while shunning or avoidance comprised 21.4% of the incidents. Sometimes Titus would walk into her bedroom to watch TV, see her turn away and ask, Mom, are you crying? Sometimes she walked into a room to see her own mother turn away, sniffling and cheering: Its OK! He was arrested along with Maylasia Goo, 20 . We said, Dad, we are going to go back soon! Ms. Monthanus recalled. A strange voice picked up. It's not clear Watson's motivation. Her mother had been blaming karma for her fathers death; weakened by his recent heart operations, Vicha often joked that life was getting too painful to bear. media-tech companies with hubs around the world. eventAction: 'load' Other celebrities joined in. '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. A representative for the San Francisco Police Department told FOX News that the agency is unable to confirm that the documents obtained by Lim are police documents. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. I got everything back the house key, even the quarter. Eric fixated on the footage, too. After several weeks, the advocate replied that the office didnt have the budget to hire a translator. But maybe were going to be hurt forever anyway.. Amanda Nguyen, a prominent activist, shared Sernoffskys report in a viral Instagram video, along with two others, one about a 64-year-old Vietnamese woman who was robbed in San Jose and another about a 61-year-old Filipino man whose face was slashed with a box cutter on the New York subway.