NEW YORK — An Asian, 61-year-old woman who was attacked with a rock has died.
The news was announced on GuiYing Ma’s memorial fund on GoFundMe.
Ma moved to New York from China in 2018.
She was sweeping the sidewalk of an empty property in Queens, when a man struck her in the head with a large rock, New York Police reported last year.
The suspect was identified the next day as Elisaul Perez.
He was charged with a charge of assault with intent to disfigure and dismember, assault with intent to seriously injure someone with a weapon, and criminal possession of a weapon.
The organizer of Ma’s fundraiser, Yihung Hsieh, said, “the attack permanently damaged the right side of Mrs. Ma’s brain.”
Ma entered a coma and was connected to a ventilator and feeding tube.
She could only respond by moving her eyes.
Ma woke up from her coma in February but still could not speak.
According to Ma’s GoFundMe, she died on February 22, due to complications from the blunt impact head injury.
Perez is scheduled to appear in court in April.
Since the pandemic began in 2020, there has been a large increase in attacks against Asian Americans.
According to Stop AAPI Hate, between March of 2020 and September of 2021, there have been more than 10,000 hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander people reported to the organization.
Stop AAPI Hate believes hate crimes against the AAPI community is under-reported and the number is actually much higher nationwide.
