About a hundred mourners came together and lit candles on Tuesday evening at Portsmouth Square to remember Michelle Go, San Francisco Chronicle reported.
40-year-old Go, an Asian American who has roots in the Bay Area, was killed while she was waiting for her train in New York City on Saturday. The New York police said she was seemingly pushed by a stranger onto the tracks. Her death is being investigated and authorities are looking if it was a hate crime.
The stranger, identified later as 61-year-old Simon Martial, faces second-degree murder after he submitted himself to the police.
Her death is a rude reminder for the Asian American community in the Bay Area and the U.S. of the present violent attacks against them.
“We will likely never know why this happened, but … we are here today because we have to come together to say, ‘This has to stop,’” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, who was present in the gathering, said.
“We have to ensure that she did not leave us, that we are going to take the spirit of her brilliance and her kindness and her desire to serve and we’re going to use that to continue to fight for a better day, because we have to, because the violence has to end,” Chiu said.
Born in 1981 in Berkeley, Go finished her high school in American High School in Fremont in 1998. Her family members said in a statement that she was an Honor Society member and was a cheerleader.
Go attained her degrees from New York University and UCLA and was working for Deloitte when she passed away.
Local advocacy group Dear Community founder Amy Lee, said that the candlelight was done simultaneously with the vigil in Times Square.
“Even though this happened in New York, it’s not like (we haven’t) had similar incidents out here in the Bay Area and San Francisco,” vigil attendee Brian Quan said. “The Asian community is always coming together to make sure that everyone is aware that we’re still here.”
Go’s family also released a statement for the candlelight.
“We hope Michelle will be remembered for how she lived and not just how she died. She was a beautiful, brilliant, kind, and intelligent woman who loved her family and friends, loved to travel the world and to help others,” part of it reads.
