A man pushed a woman in front of a subway train in New York City.
She was identified as a 40-year-old woman from the Upper West Side. Go was waiting for the train at the Times Square station when she was attacked.
The incident was unprovoked and the victim did not have any interaction with the subject. "This was a horrible act of violence."
Simon Martial turned himself in at a police precinct after fleeing the scene.
The NYPD detective bureau confirmed during a press conference with the mayor and local officials on Saturday afternoon that the suspect was known to police, with three emotionally disturbed encounters they have documented. Police think he was homeless.
It's not clear if Go was targeted because of her race. The police and district attorney are still looking into the charges.
"Too often Asian Americans are seen as foreigners and people who are not truly American, and we want to make sure we are standing as a city against discrimination," said Grace Meng, who represents Queens.
Hate incidents against Asian Americans have gone up in the US. There were more than 10,000 hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the year 2020.
Older Asian people have been the target of unprovoked attacks. Six Asian women were killed in a series of shootings at spas in the Atlanta area in March 2020.
Wilcox noted that Martial had approached another woman on the platform who was not Asian, and made threatening movements toward her minutes before the attack. She was afraid he would push her onto the tracks and then kill her.
The NYPD increased its patrol of subway platforms and trains after an increase in transit crimes. The two officers were on the subway platform.