NYC woman indicted on hate crime charges accused of string of anti-Asian attacks, district attorney’s office says

By Rob Frehse, CNN

(CNN) — A New York City woman was indicted on seven felony hate crime charges in connection with a string of anti-Asian attacks on the city’s Upper West Side, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Wednesday.

Camila Rodriguez, 29, was charged in two New York State Supreme Court indictments with assault in the second degree as a hate crime, six counts of assault in the third degree as a hate crime, and six counts of aggravated harassment in the second degree, the district attorney’s office said.

CNN reached out to Rodriguez’s attorney at The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit that represents poor New Yorkers in legal matters, and was told the group had no comment.

The six attacks took place from March 16 to May 11, all within blocks of one another, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez is accused of pulling the hair of an Asian woman on West 108th Street on March 22 and then slapping her in the face after the victim spoke to her in Mandarin, according to the district attorney’s office. Rodriguez allegedly continued to punch the victim after the two fell to the ground, the district attorney’s office said.

On April 8, Rodriguez allegedly pulled the hair of a person who was waiting with two friends – all of whom were of Chinese descent – for a table outside a restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue between West 106th and West 107th streets, the prosecutor’s office said. One of the friends pushed Rodriguez off the person whose hair was pulled, and Rodriguez allegedly pushed her electric scooter into that friend’s leg, bruising it, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez then allegedly tried to attack a waitress at the restaurant who appeared to be of Asian descent when she came out to the tell the group members their table was ready, prosecutors said. The friend who’d earlier pushed Rodriguez pushed her again, and Rodriguez struck him with a semi-closed fist, according to prosecutors.

In an incident on April 21, Rodriguez allegedly grabbed the hair of a woman of Filipino descent at a corner of West 104th Street and Broadway, pulled her to the ground and punched her in the face multiple times, bruising her lip and cutting her chin and wrist, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez also is accused in alleged attacks on March 16, April 27 and May 11, involving accusations of kicking a woman of Korean descent in the back of the leg near stairs leading to a subway station; spitting at a man of Chinese descent; and a backhanded slap to the face of a man of Korean descent, respectively, according to prosecutors.

“Hate and harassment have absolutely no place on the streets of Manhattan and New Yorkers of all backgrounds deserve to feel safe,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a news release.

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CNN’s Isa Kaufman-Geballe contributed to this report.