Asian American woman assaulted in Culver City in possible hate crime

Culver City police are investigating a possible hate crime after a man assaulted an Asian American woman on a sidewalk Monday.

The woman was walking west in the 13300 block of Washington Boulevard just after 1 a.m. heading to work, police said.

A man approached her and asked for a cigarette, according to a Culver City news release. She said she didn’t have one and began to walk away. Surveillance footage shows that she kept her gaze forward, but the man kept walking beside her.

“So what, you can’t say hi to a motherf— white boy?” he asked. Police said he referred to her as an “Asian motherf—.”

Then he punched her on the right side of her head, causing her to fall into the street. As she moaned, he continued to yell.

“B—! You know what I said to you?” he said, standing over her. “I said, ‘Good morning, b—!’ ”

He then walked away, headed west on Washington Boulevard. The woman was treated at a local hospital for severe lacerations to her right ear, police said.

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The incident Monday marks the latest in a wave of attacks on Asian Americans across the country during the coronavirus pandemic, which some have blamed on Asians because of its origins in China.

A recent study examined 16 U.S. police jurisdictions and found a nationwide spike of 164% in reports of anti-Asian hate crimes in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same period last year.

A hate crime is an attack on a person or property motivated by race, gender or other protected characteristics.

The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino report showed that the number of hate crimes against Asian Americans in the first quarter increased from five to 12 in San Francisco, a jump of 140%. In Los Angeles, there were nine hate crimes in the first quarter of 2021, compared with five during the same period last year — a change of 80%.

Advocacy organization Stop AAPI Hate released another report last month showing the breadth of the attacks: name-calling, spitting, pushing, hitting and other incidents involving racial slurs.

The Culver City Police Department asked anyone with information about the Washington Boulevard attack to contact the detective bureau at (310) 253-6300.