A man accused of attacking an elderly Asian woman in San Francisco was convicted of a similar crime just last year.
A series of still pictures from security camera video taken Friday at about 11:15 a.m. shows a man kicking a woman as she was walking on the sidewalk and she falls on the ground.
According to San Francisco police, the attack happened at Ellis and Stockton streets.
A witness chased down the attacker and held him until officers took him into custody.
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James Lee Ramsey, 27, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of elder abuse and felony assault on the 88-year-old woman and the good samaritan who jumped in to help.
"We as city leaders have to make sure that people understand there are consequences when they commit these types of violent acts against our most vulnerable members of our community," said DA Brooke Jenkins.
According to SFPD, the 88-year-old victim was rushed to a local hospital and is expected to survive from her injuries.
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But these kinds of attacks on older members of the Asian community continue to raise concerns.
And in this case, it's especially infuriating for Oakland community leader Carl Chan because the man who's facing felony charges in a San Francisco courtroom Tuesday is the same man who was convicted of attacking him in April 2021 in Oakland.
"People nowadays are so afraid walking down the streets because we are seeing so many people, many of these are repeat offenders, walking down the street every single day,” said Chan.
Ramsey served less than a year of a three-year sentence before being given supervised release.
What's more, Chan says he was devastated to see that someone in Oakland launched a GoFundMe campaign to help support his attacker.
Community members at the time of the attack insisted Ramsey was suffering from mental illness.
In Friday's attack in San Francisco, DA Jenkins says they're weighing their options on adding a hate crime charge.
"We are still going to be investigating any motive that we can find in this case. We will certainly be looking at the prior incident, to see the facts and prior circumstances of that. But at this time, we have not charged that enhancement,” said Jenkins.
The San Francisco District Attorney's Office has requested that Ramsey be held in jail, until his trial.
There will be a hearing on that motion before a judge next week.
