Chinese American Woman Assaulted During Daytime Dog Walk in Kew Gardens

Please note a correction to this article. I initially wrote June 11th as the assault date when it was actually May 21st. Thanks to Sarah Kim at Eyewitness News for catching that.

I suppose it’s time I share more about my wife’s assault. I waited to see how things would unfold before posting this detailed account publicly. Since it seems unlikely much more will happen, here it is.

TLDR: This is a long post, but in brief, my wife was punched during a daytime dog walk in Kew Gardens, and the person responsible got away.

We haven’t heard from any officers, the DA’s office, or detectives for weeks. So it appears this case may not be resolved. Here’s what happened.

On Friday, May 21st 2021, between 10:30am and 11am, my wife was walking our dog Peppa on Queens Boulevard between 82nd Ave and 82nd Road in Kew Gardens, Queens. Around 10:45am, a light-skinned Black male, about 5’8” tall and 150 pounds, was on the street yelling and cursing.

For some reason, he targeted my wife and began yelling and cursing at her. She can’t recall exactly what he said. She was under the scaffolding shown here, trying to get away. We were asked if this might have been a hate crime due to her race. We don’t know his motivation, but we aren’t ruling it out.

The man followed her and shoved her. She pushed back and told him to leave her alone. Then he punched her on the right shoulder and kicked her on the right thigh.

As he punched her, he told her to “put the dog down.” It seems he didn’t want to harm the dog, just her. A strange sense of moral limits, perhaps. /sarcasm

My wife started to scream, which drew attention. When people approached, the man fled toward the cemetery. My wife spotted an officer across the street and ran for help. He said he was there for court and couldn’t assist. Later, she tried to flag down another officer driving by, but they ignored her. Two other officers smoking nearby talked with her but didn’t take action.

Realizing the police were not going to help, she came upstairs to tell me. She had forgotten her phone, so we couldn’t connect sooner. I quickly went downstairs to search for the suspect but didn’t find him. He was gone by then.

We talked to some bystanders who said the police had been notified, but there was no report number or contact information. We called the police ourselves to create a record. About eight hours later, two officers came by, took some information, and gave us a job number. They said without video or photos the detectives wouldn’t be able to do much, so we didn’t formally file a report at that time.

The next day, we viewed security footage from the nearby construction site. We got a photo of the suspect’s back but not his face. I also visited the DA’s office and spoke with a guard named David who said he recognized the man due to previous incidents in the area. I was told detectives had access to footage, but I could not view it myself.

Over the next few days, I kept thinking about the assault. My wife was bruised and I was angry. I sent emails to neighborhood outreach officers and called 911 again wanting to file a proper police report and have detectives investigate. 911 told me to call the precinct and provide a report number, which was frustrating since that was what I was trying to get.

I emailed and tweeted the DA’s office about the incident. Thanks to Nick at Eva’s, I met Melissa who works at the DA’s office. Eventually I spoke with a lieutenant who said they were reviewing the video, but I haven’t heard back since.

Following my emails, the responding officers returned to our home, gathered more details, and provided a report number. Detectives later contacted us, we went to the station, reviewed mug shots, provided our photos and information, and were told they would investigate. We haven’t heard back since.

We also received a call from a victim support counselor. My wife spoke with them but didn’t find it very helpful—friendly, but not very practical.

It’s been several weeks. My wife’s bruises are healing, but she remains a little shaken. She no longer walks Peppa alone on weekends. I take Peppa during the week and my wife joins us on weekends. She now carries a personal safety alarm. It may or may not help, but it won’t hurt. She’s also starting a women’s empowerment self-defense program based on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, created by Eve and Rener Gracie. It looks promising, as you can see below.

NYC is a big city and it can be dangerous. We consider ourselves lucky that this incident wasn’t worse and that this is the first time my wife has faced real violence here. She’s not used to situations like this. I’m thankful she’s been mostly safe all things considered, but we’re doing what we can to keep her safer moving forward. I also want to raise awareness that assaults like this can happen anywhere, anytime. Please be careful out there, friends.