New York man arrested, charged with hate crimes after assaulting Asian women
A 28-year-old man was arrested and charged in New York on Wednesday (March 2) after a series of attacks on Asian women.
Steven Zajonc is alleged to have assaulted seven women, ranging in age from 19 to 57, without provocation.
The women were punched or elbowed in the face.
The incidents happened in Manhattan over two hours on Sunday evening.
The women suffered cuts, lacerations or swelling on the face. Some of them had to be treated in hospital.
In one instance, a 20-year-old woman reported being pushed to the ground by a blond-haired man, who then ran away.
Zajonc was arrested after he barricaded himself in a toilet at the New York Public Library.
Staff at the library recognised him from surveillance footage that the police had released and he was brought out.
He faces multiple charges of harassment and assault as a hate crime.
Anti-Asian hate crimes in the US city have reportedly gone up by more than 300 per cent since 2020.
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