How Jarrod Powell Killed Yao Pan Ma

Yao Pan Ma and his wife moved from Mainland China to the United States in October 2018. Ma had been a dim sum chef there.

Ma worked at a restaurant until the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down for good. Ma and his wife, who had also lost her job permanently, collected bottles and cans to make money so they could buy food.

The Attack

Yao Pan Ma was picking up cans in East Harlem on April 23, 2021. Jarrod Powell attacked Ma from behind and threw him to the ground with great force.

Investigators say that when Powell saw Ma on the street, he ran up to him and hit him from behind, knocking him down. The DA's statement says that Powell then stepped on Ma's head several times and then repeatedly kicked him in the head, face, and neck.

The DA's office said that Powell ran away while Ma was still unconscious, and a bus driver who saw the attack called an ambulance.

Prosecutors said that Ma had broken bones in his face, bleeding on the brain, and a traumatic brain injury. He was also put on life support.

The DA's office says Powell was arrested on April 27. He told police that he had been attacked by two Korean or Japanese men the day before he attacked Ma. But prosecutors said Powell admitted he didn't tell the police about the attack and didn't say anything about the alleged attackers other than that they were black.

Alvin Bragg, the district attorney for Manhattan, said in a statement that Jarrod Powell picked on Mr. Ma because of his race.

Bragg said that the Manhattan DA's office is currently handling 33 anti-Asian bias hate crime cases. This is the most cases the office has had since its Hate Crimes Unit was set up in 2010. She also said that the office prosecuted almost four times as many anti-Asian hate crimes in 2021 as it did the year before.

Hate crime reports from the New York Police Department show that there were 524 hate crimes in 2021. This is almost double the number of hate crimes that were reported the year before, which was 265.

Another Attack on Asian Woman

Michelle Alyssa Go was an Asian-American woman who was 40 years old. According to the police, she was pushed in front of a New York City subway train, which killed her.

The suspect is Martial Simon, who was later arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The thing incident happened at the Times Square–42nd Street/Port Authority Bus Terminal station.

At the scene, Go was pronounced dead. Simon ran away, but he later turned himself in and said he was guilty.

In 1999 and 2019, Simon was found guilty of trying to rob someone, and a warrant was out for him for breaking his parole. Shortly before what transpired, he was allegedly bothering other people on the train.

Later, another woman told investigators that Simon had also talked to her. She said that he made her feel scared, so she left him. Simon went to the police soon after what happened, and he has been charged with second-degree murder.

The police say that Simon has been sick mentally in the past. Attorney Mitchell Schuman of NYC Defenders said that it would be a shame if "Mr. Simon was sacrificed on the altar of vengeful public opinion" instead of trying to understand the complicated problem of a city with "so many homeless black people with untreated mental illness."

On April 19, 2022, Simon was found unfit to stand trial and put in a locked psychiatric facility for the rest of his life.