Maricia Bell, 25, has been accused of attacking three Asian women aged 75, 63 and 34 along with a 23-year-old Asian man
A woman has been arrested for an alleged hate-driven, anti-Asian series of assaults that left four people injured over the course of several months in Queens, New York.
Maricia Bell, 25, has been accused of attacking three women aged 75, 63 and 34 along with a 23-year-old man.
The four incidents were all separate and began on May 23 but saw Bell punch her victims or even use a metal tool as part of the alleged attack.
During the first assault, Bell is alleged to have yelled at her victim, 'Why are you talking to me?' before punching the man in a parking lot in Flushing.
A similar assault was then committed against a 34-year-old woman inside a bodega in Pomonok on June 16.
The following month, on July 11, she is accused of hitting a 63-year-old woman in the face while the victim was walking near 72nd Avenue and Parsons Boulevard, also in in Pomonok.
The latest incident happened early on Wednesday morning about a block away from where she is alleged to have hit a 75-year-old woman with a hammer.
Bell has been charged with a number of hate crimes together with assault, harassment and robbery, according to police.
Bell has five prior arrests including one from March for which she was charged with assault as a hate crime according to the New York Post.
The alleged assaults are just one of many that have targeted Asians citywide, with close to 100 anti-Asian hate crimes being reported to authorities this year, according to the NYPD with at least 260 since the start of the pandemic.
Activists and police officials say many additional incidents were not classified as hate crimes or went unreported.
In December 2020 an Asian Hate Crime Task Force was formed within the NYPD, to encourage victims to report the attacks.
Bill de Blasio, mayor of
