Elderly Asian Woman Sends Attacker to Hospital After Defending Herself With a Stick

An elderly Asian woman was attacked in San Francisco on Wednesday, but instead of running away, she fought back by hitting her attacker with a stick.

During an interview with local television station KPIX 5, the woman, Xiao Zhen Xie, 76, addressed the attack with her daughter, Dong-Mei Li, speaking on her behalf.

"Very traumatized, very scared and this eye is still bleeding," Li said. "The right eye still cannot see anything and is still bleeding and we have something to absorb the bleeding."

Xie noted she was waiting at the traffic light at Market Street and Charles J. Brenham Place near McAllister Street around 10:30 a.m., when a man punched her in the face by her left eye.

Although Xie acknowledged that she was rattled by the attack, her immediate response was to fight back with a stick she found near the area.

A video taken by KPIX 5 journalist Dennis O'Donnell showed Xie holding the stick while shouting at her attacker, who was on a stretcher getting EMT attention. The lower half of the attacker's face appeared to be covered in blood in the video.

Xie is shown addressing the crowd of people around her in Chinese while crying and holding a bag of ice to her injured eye in the video. She also continuously pointed the stick she used to defend herself at the man in a stretcher.

The San Francisco Police Department told the local television station that both Xie and her attacker were taken to a hospital after the incident.

The Police Department added the suspect, a 39-year-old man, has not been named and is under investigation for the alleged attack. The police are also determining if racial bias had a role in the attack.

Li noted that, as a result of the attack, her mother can't see anything through her left eye and hasn't been able to eat. Li hopes that time will heal both her mother's emotional and physical pains.

In an effort to help pay for Xie's medical expenses, her family launched a GoFundMe account. According to a description of the fundraiser, Xie's family wrote that "she has been severely affected mentally, physically, and emotionally" from the attack. They added Xie "is afraid to step out of her home from now on."

"This traumatic event has left her with PTSD," the family continued.

Xie was attacked less than a day after eight people, six of them Asian women, were shot and killed in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 2020, hate crimes against Asian Americans increased by nearly 150 percent compared to previous years, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University.

Newsweek reached out to the San Francisco Police Department, but didn't hear back in time for publication.