Anti-Asian hate crimes in San Francisco spiked 567 percent in 2021 as police say a one-man crimewave was responsible for more than half the attacks.
Hate crimes targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the California city, jumped to 60 last year from from just nine in 2020 and eight in 2019 - although officials believe the actual numbers are much higher because people are reluctant to report to the police.
'That is significant, that is concerning and that is alarming,' police chief Bill Scott said at a press conference in San Francisco's Chinatown on Tuesday as he announced the police department would have a presence at next week's Lunar New Year celebration while advising the community to remain vigilant.
Scott said 31 of the 60 reported attacks were committed by one man. He did not name the culprit but police later pointed to the arrest last August of 36-year-old Derik Barreto who rode around San Francisco on a scooter, vandalizing Chinese-owned businesses for five months until he was captured.
He faces 33 charges including 31 hate crime enhancements the DA's office brought based on statements he allegedly made to police implying he targeted Asians.
Police believe that 36-year-old Derik Barreto (pictured), who was arrested last August is responsible for 31 of the 60 incidents reported last year -more than half of the total number. From April to August he is alleged to have targeted Chinese-owned businesses and faces 33 charges including vandalism and burglary and 31 hate crime enhancements which the DA's office brought based on statements he made to police
Preliminary numbers indicated hate crimes targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander in San Francisco went from nine in 2020 to 60 in 2021
In August, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced Barreto was facing 33 charges, including hate crime allegations, for 27 separate incidents of vandalism and burglary targeting 20 primarily Chinese-owned businesses, CBS San Francisco reported.
The Democratic DA, whose progressive policies have been blamed for the overall spike in crime in the city, said Barreto rode around San Francisco on a scooter and shattered the windows of 20 separate stores using a slingshot, pipe, or hammer during a string of racially motivated offenses between April and August 2021.
Barreto is charged with 27 felony counts of vandalism, four felony counts of second-degree burglary, one misdemeanor count of possession of burglary tools and one misdemeanor count of possession of a concealed weapon.
He will face 31 enhanced hate-crime charges after comments Barreto allegedly made to police suggesting he intentionally targeted businesses he believed to be Chinese-owned and that he was motivated by the perceived race and nationality of the victims, the San Francisco Standard reported.
'Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a deeply concerning increase in the incidence of hate and violence against the AAPI community. We will not stand for it and we will do everything in our power to stop it,' Boudin said.
DailyMail.com reached out to Boudin's office to find out whether Barreto remains in custody and when he is next scheduled to appear in court.
Reports of anti-Asian hate crimes in San Francisco increased more than against any other group, and even without accounting for Barreto's crime spree would have still seen a 200 percent jump last year. There were just eight reported in 2019 in the city, where nearly 35 percent of its population of 300,00 is Asian.
Hateful attacks against the AAPI community surged nationally during the pandemic, fueled in part by then-President Donald Trump's calling COVID-19 a derogatory nickname that insulted China.
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