The NYPD is looking for a man wanted in connection with an allegedly racist attack on a woman in Rego Park over the weekend.
On Sunday, April 26, around 11:45 a.m., around Wetherole Street and 66th Avenue, a man made COVID-19 related anti-Asian statements to a 36-year-old woman, police say.
The woman then tried to use her cell phone to take a photo of the man, but he slapped it out of her hand, causing it to fall to the ground and shatter, according to the NYPD.
The man then ran off westbound on Wetherole Street, police said.
The man is described as having a salt and pepper beard and mustache. At the time of the attack, he was wearing a white baseball hat, a white hooded sweater, white sweatpants and white shoes, according to authorities.
The incident mirrors a similar anti-Asian attack in the 112th Precinct in March.
On March 12, a man pushed an Asian man after harassing him and his 10-year-old son in Forest Hills, according to the police. The man was later arrested by the Hate Crimes Task Force of the NYPD.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
