Brutal killings of Asian women in NYC worth reflecting: NBC

NEW YORK - Two brutal killings in the span of less than a month have left Asian American women in New York City on edge.

In metropolitan areas around the country, they say there's constant reason to be looking over their shoulder, Xinhua quoted a NBC report.

Around 4am Sunday, 35-year-old Christina Yuna Lee was found dead in her bathroom stabbed 40 times after a man, Assamad Nash, allegedly silently followed her up six flights of stairs into her lower Manhattan apartment, according to the report.

Her death follows the Jan 15 killing of Michelle Go, 40, who was pushed in front of an oncoming train at the Times Square subway station.

At a vigil held to commemorate her, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, "I'm recommitted to ensure that this will not happen in our city."

Several women who live in the city were quoted as saying that statements like that have felt increasingly hollow. With Lee's death in her own home, they say their safe spaces around New York are rapidly disappearing.

Impacts of violence and racism are disproportionately felt by women in targetted groups, said Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, and the brutality endured by Asian Americans long predates the pandemic.

"When the pandemic-related violence against particularly East Asians started happening, people were talking about it as if it's the first time we're experiencing this," she said. "Now people are paying attention. Now they want to know. All of a sudden, there's interest." - BERNAMA