Police in Washington, D.C., are investigating after a man, who was captured on surveillance video footage, appeared to pummel an Asian clerk on Tuesday.
The suspect, who has yet to be identified, can be seen conversing with the shop owner, Chuong Hu Lu, before he appears to knock him to the ground with a right hook and punch him several times while he tries to recover. Hu Lu said the individual remarked, “F*** you, Chinese people. I hate Chinese” during the assault, according to Fox 5.
“I’m really scared,” he told the outlet. “We didn’t do nothing wrong. He just asked me one question. I just said, ‘No.’ Then, he punch me and say, ‘F*** you, Chinese people. I hate Chinese. Why you do me like this?’ I didn’t even do nothing wrong.”
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Disturbing video shows a NOMA store owner getting punched in the face 2x by a customer after he said he could not open a jewelry case. I spoke to the owner who said the man yelled, “F* the Chinese. I hate Chinese people.” PD investigating this as a possible hate crime. @fox5dc pic.twitter.com/90bXIAA8uq
— Natalie Rubino (@newswithnatalie) May 5, 2021
The surveillance video published by Fox 5 does not have any audio from the attack. Instead, people can be heard discussing the video as it plays. Still shots, the outlet reported, show that the suspect and a woman he was with walked out of the store following the incident.
Hu Lu, an immigrant who has been in the United States for 22 years, said the spat began after he declined to open a jewelry case for the customer, as is store policy. The business owner was later transported to a local hospital, where he received over a dozen stitches.
The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department told the Washington Examiner that it is investigating the incident as a hate crime. Law enforcement further noted that Hu Lu sustained a lacerated lip in the beating.
Han Zhunz, a neighboring store owner, was dismayed by the assault.
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“We are American people too,” he told FOX 5. “He’s an American citizen. I’m an American citizen. I work for this country. We pay the tax. We’re working hard. We’re the same people. Asian hate crimes need to stop.”
The incident on Tuesday is another in a series of violent attacks against Asian people in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic.
