Viral video shows Chinese immigrant describing horrifying attack by drug addict in NYC: ‘Why Asian women?’

An Asian woman has described a horrifying attack she survived outside a Long Island City restaurant. A video, which has gone viral, shows 30-year-old Chinese immigrant Runing Lao describing how she was attacked with an umbrella by a drug addict as she left the Chipotle near the corner of Purves Street and Jackson Avenue on July 17 at about 1 pm.

Lao told New York Post that the attack outside the New York City eatery has left her terrified and she is now afraid to go back to work. “I was maybe five or 10 steps away from Chipotle … and this woman just starts to beat me for no reason,” Lao said. She reportedly works in real estate.

“So I was like, ‘What’s going on? What happened?’” she added. “And then I instantly started yelling, ‘Help me!’ I felt really shocked.”

The suspect has been identified as 34-year-old Adriana Garcia of Queens. She allegedly grabbed Lao’s umbrella and broke it in half, and then used it to beat Lao, leaving her bloodied. “The umbrella is not super strong, but that kind of surprised me,” said Lao.

Good Samaritan steps in

A good Samaritan luckily intervened and helped Lao. “It was just a spur of the moment — I saw it and just reacted,” Jerome David, 56, an emergency management worker, said.

David said it appeared as though Garcia deliberately bumped into Lao and then began attacking her. “Before Lao even got the chance to say I’m sorry or anything, the woman up and punched her in the face,” David said.

“At first I thought it was a prank — like that ‘Punk’d’ show they do,” he said. “But when I saw [Garcia] break the umbrella and hit her in the face, with blood gushing down, I was like, ‘Wow, what the?’”

David described how he tried to restrain Garcia. "She tried to run off that way and I grabbed her right there, held her, she hit me breaking my glasses, and then she ran over there and I ran after her and pinned her onto the floor," David said, according to ABC7, adding that no one else “made a move to do anything.”

Lao was rushed to a hospital by EMS workers with bleeding cuts and scratches on her face. She received treatment and was released.

Garcia was charged with two counts of assault by the Queens District Attorney’s Office. She had previously been arrested on July 4 for slashing someone in the face with a razor blade while arguing over crack cocaine. She is said to have eight other previous arrests.

Garcia’s bail has been set at $5,000 cash/bond at her July 18 arraignment. The DA’s office said she is due in court on July 29.

‘Why Asian women?’

A bandaged Lao said in the video that she is now scared to go back to work. “I’m terrified to go back to my work anytime soon,” she said. “And why me? Why Asian women? Is it because I’m short, I’m skinny, I’m polite?”

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Lao came to the US to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees several years ago. Since the attack, she has been staying with female friends.

“I have been in New York for almost 10 years, and at the beginning, there wasn’t so many homeless people or illegal immigrants,” she said. “But now, it’s so much more. And I honestly don’t think the system is doing a good job [regarding] how to arrange them, how to make them get educated and find a job.”

“It just doesn’t feel safe for a normal citizen, especially a weaker, smaller size woman,” she added.

Lao said she is thankful to David for coming to her rescue. "I think he saved me for real," she said.

"I still love the city and I hope there are measures that can be done to make the city safer again," she added.

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