On Wednesday, Brandon Elliot was arrested for assaulting an old Filipino woman in Times Square last week. Elliot is currently 38 and living in a homeless shelter and other security cameras have caught him attacking other older women around the city. The Manhattan district attorney said that since these two incidents happened, he was charged with two counts of assault and one count of attempted assault. This means he could spend up to 25 years in prison if he ends up being convicted.

The video footage shows Elliot kicking the older lady, Ms. Kari outside an apartment building and shouting rude remarks like “you don’t belong here.” Ms. Kari is an Asian woman and just from the remarks you can see that this is a straight-up hate crime. The footage spread all over the news and social media which caused a lot of rage since many people were angry the violence towards the Asian community was still happening. The hashtag #StopAsianHate has been trending on social media platforms over the past couple of weeks after the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes has climbed across the country.

This is not the first time that Elliot has been charged with an attack. Back in 2002, Elliot pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after killing his mother in front of his younger sister. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but was released on parole in November 2019. Many believe that since he got released from prison and put into a homeless shelter, the public was asking for more trouble from him. Mr. Shea from PIX11 said that a lack of resources in the city’s shelter system and social services may have played some role in the attack. People at the shelter claimed his behavior would sometimes get out of control due to his personal choices, so many avoided him. These actions could have been part of the reason why Elliot attacked Ms. Kari but the police are still investigating the whole situation.