Neighborhood residents in San Francisco are stepping forward following a broad daylight incident involving an elderly who was openly punched in the head from behind.
The violence happened Wednesday when Chi-Kwan Yan, 72, was out window shopping.
“All of a sudden I felt a pop in the back of my head.”
The senior citizen is currently living in Palo Alto. He was once a resident of West Portal.
Chi-Kwan came back to his former neighborhood for a schedule with his optometrist last Wednesday when unexpectedly, a man punched him.
“I have heart disease and I had an angioplasty less than a year ago. I’m still on blood thinners, so I thought, shoot, this might cause some bleeding in my brain. That’s what I was really worried about.”
The old man immediately jumped back, a surveillance video used in the probe showed.
“I exercise a lot and do some tai chi and martial arts,” said Chi-Kwan.
Fortunately, Chi-Kwan only sustained a bump on his head and painful knees.
“I was lucky this time, but maybe next time, maybe I won’t be so lucky.”
The same thing happened to Lily, 14, who was also punched and hit to the ground, her mother Lynda Porter said. The incident involving the teen occurred when she was out with her friend days before the attack with the senior citizen happened.
“There was no way to prevent it was random, senseless act of violence. She was psychologically distraught obviously,” Lynda said.
The connection between the two incidents was not confirmed yet by the SFPD. But considering the same strategy of the attacks, Chi-Kwan was determined to take action.
“Asians need to stand up. Initially, I thought forget it I won’t report it. Then I thought about it. We have to stand up to be counted. Otherwise, this will continue to happen. It might happen to me again,” he said, as reported by ABC7.
Investigations for both cases are underway, police said.
