Throughout 2020, multiple strangers had come at her seemingly out of nowhere. We dont know how to attribute this rise in reporting, he told me. Around midnight, after Eric and the boys went to bed, the two women drove to the corner with a bucket, gloves and a dish brush. We also identified his female associate as 20-year-old Maylasia Goo also of Daly . During the pandemic, Vicha usually left the house before 8 a.m. and made it back before his grandsons started their Zoom classes. Hundreds of people hold a rally Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022, in San Francisco and five other U.S. cities to remember the death of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee. Monthanus and Eric had been busy arranging her fathers funeral while fielding phone calls and messages from family, friends and strangers. }); Eric held her, and she held her sons. But she and Eric feared that the trauma might manifest years, or decades, later. All rights reserved. His mother, who was also laid off from her job during lockdown, found work through relatives in another state and was, for a while, supporting the family from afar. San Francisco Mayor London Breed, joined by several other elected officials including City Attorney David Chiu, State Senator Scott Wiener, and Supervisors Catherine Stefani and Rafael Mandelman, led the crowd in marching and chanting slogans. After the attack, as her father lay on the ground, a couple driving by stopped to place a blanket on him. I have this weird, stupid fantasy, Eric said. It was the first court appearance of 19-year-old Daly City resident Antoine Watson since he was arrested for the assault this past weekend. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), "But when you cross that line, when you commit murder, when you take someone's life like that, we as a city and as a society have to hold you accountable for your actions. Will Lex Ham, right, and Max Leung, center, distributed information on how to report a hate crime in San Franciscos Chinatown this month. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), I want to know the truth. But in practice, proving bias is difficult, especially when theres no explicit expression of it. The incident was caught on camera, galvanizing the national Stop Asian Hate movement. His older daughter, Monthanus, described her father as a devoted Buddhist. San Francisco News, Restaurants . Love you, dude. The young man repeated himself. ga('create', 'UA-67136960-15', 'auto', 'ads'); She wanted to be strong for her sons, but she had trouble sleeping at night and broke into tears unexpectedly. Antoine grew up in San Francisco and spent part of his childhood with his siblings, parents and grandparents in the Anza Vista area, where Vicha later lived. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin has sparked outrage on social media after telling the New York Times that 19-year-old Antoine Watson was "in some sort of a temper tantrum" when he . Police later identified the suspect as Antoine Watson, 19. San Francisco police arrested 19-year-old Antoine Watson days after the attack. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The amulet, a precious family heirloom, will be passed to the next generation, Ms. Monthanus said. Mr. Watsons lawyer, Sliman Nawabi, a public defender, said his client would not have been able to identify Mr. Vichas ethnicity through his face mask, cap and winter clothing. This is in part because the defendant already faces a long prison sentence, and also because, as one prosecutor put it, its impossible to know whats in someones heart. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in June that federal prosecutors declined to pursue hate-crimes charges in about four out of every five cases from 2005 to 2019, citing insufficient evidence.. The court system, which they thought would deliver swift justice, was confoundingly slow. Mr. Nawabi described Mr. Watson as someone who had struggled with anger. When Monthanus had a gripe with the landlord or a stranger who crossed her, he would tell her to let it go, to leave it to karma. On Jan. 15, he received the first shot of the Moderna vaccine. Rev. Another person claiming to be Vichas son had set up a fund-raiser in his name. For weeks, Monthanus Ratanapakdee urged her parents to please. Watson, the court documents state, had been cited for "reckless driving, speeding and failure to stop at a stop sign" in the hours before the attack. 'Very open to the idea': Julia Wandelt takes DNA test to verify if she is missing Swiss girl Livia Schepp, Kayla Lemieux: Teacher with prosthetic Z-cup breasts suspended WITH PAY after pics show her dressed as man, Michael Schneider: Psychic detective gives '100%' verdict on whether Julia Wandelt is Madeleine McCann, Lindsay Clancy case: Psychologist reveals psychosis red flags family members could have spotted, 'I'd be horrified if my kids did that': Internet slams eight-year-old's pregnant mom for enabling 'disgusting' behavior. },false) Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. She told her husband, Eric Lawson, who rushed home from the restaurant where he worked. Vicha and his first grandson, Titus Lawson, in 2009. 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year old immigrant from Thailand, was preparing to go on his early morning walk in the quiet Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco on Saturday, January 28, 2021. In November, another old man spat in her direction as her sons rode their scooters by the bay. I kept my promise, Dad, she said. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern, indem Sie auf unseren Websites und Apps auf den Link Datenschutz-Dashboard klicken. Monthanus arrived at the steps of the San Francisco Hall of Justice, an imposing concrete building that spans a city block, where Antoine Watson was scheduled to appear for a pretrial hearing. Monthanus was alone in the room with her sister on FaceTime. hitType: 'event', This was the 70th. ), The next morning, Eric called the tip lines for several local news stations and left messages for reporters, inviting them to the Hall of Justice, where he and Monthanus were scheduled to meet with homicide detectives. She remains puzzled why on the morning of the attack he left without his Buddhist amulet, a talisman of protection that he always wore around his neck. On that morning a number of security cameras in the area captured Mr. Watson banging a car with his hand, according to Mr. Boudin, the district attorney. More than 500 days after the incident, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Darwin ruled that the evidence presented by the District Attorney's Office is enough for a murder trial. She debated whether to show it to her mother, who had become more fragile after a recent stroke. They will all be together.. His orange jumpsuit fit loosely over his tall frame, chains linking his wrists, his hair growing out. Boudin, who started his term just a few months before the lockdown, in January 2020, inherited more than 5,000 criminal prosecutions. SAN FRANCISCO Weary of being cooped inside during the pandemic, Vicha Ratanapakdee was impatient for his regular morning walk. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! For his family, the death has been devastating both in California and abroad. After the last court hearing, Monthanus called the victims advocate assigned to her by the district attorneys office to request a Thai translator. Security footage showed the assailant R But I dont want it to be like that. People use the "young teenager" label on him as an excuse to obviously protect him and his behavior. She could see that Vichas death meant something bigger than her own grief, that he was part of a history that preceded her and a future she could help shape. } Weitere Informationen ber die Verwendung Ihrer personenbezogenen Daten finden Sie in unserer Datenschutzerklrung und unserer Cookie-Richtlinie. The Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act, passed with bipartisan support and signed into law by President Biden in May, primarily aims to improve crime reporting and data collection. The law was celebrated for recognizing the need to better track violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Monthanus wore a black wool cloak over a pleated dress that flew up as the boat pulled away from the dock. window.googletag.cmd.push(function() { San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin hassparked outrage on social mediaafter telling the New York Times that 19-year-old AntoineWatsonwas "in some sort of a temper tantrum" when he allegedly attacked84-year-oldThai immigrant Vichar Ratanapakdee. Grandpa died as a result of Antoine not being arrested for reckless driving, he said, and then not having proper services to come out and talk to him while hes out here yelling all morning., He thought about Antoines family and something his friend once told him, about how when his son had issues with another family, he would meet with them to talk about it. Ratanapakdee was on his morning walk last Thursday at around 8:28 a.m. in Anza Vista, San Francisco when Watson rushed towards the victim and pushed him to the ground. Watson, along with his accomplice in the killing, pled "not guilty" at their court hearings. She never got to decide. I met Monthanus one breezy afternoon in April at Wat Nagara Dhamma, a Buddhist temple outfitted inside a small two-story house across the street from Golden Gate Park. Left, Mr. Vicha holding his young daughter next to his wife. Two days after entering the hospital, just before dawn, Vicha died in his sleep. A San Francisco man accused of killing an 84-year-old Thai grandfather in an attack that galvanized Asian Americans and helped spur a successful recall of the city's liberal prosecutor was ordered . I just want to know why he did it. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. ", When asked outside the courtroom what she wanted to see happen, Watson's grandmother said, "To see him walk out this door like I'm walking out right now.". a white gunman killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. Owners of gun stores reported more Asian customers than ever before. Since her fathers death, she and Eric agreed that no one would go out at night without him. Watson is accused in the deadly attack of Vicha Ratanapakdee in the city's Anza Vista neighborhood on January 28. News of a viral outbreak in Wuhan had started circulating in the international news media. After several weeks, the advocate replied that the office didnt have the budget to hire a translator. $300,000 a year is roughly what a family of four needs to earn to live a middle-class lifestyle in the Bay Area. Surveillance video showed Ratanapakdee walking in the driveway of a home when the suspect barrels him into the victim violently, knocking him to the ground before the suspect casually walks away in the same direction he came from. This arrest data includes all information on current and previous arrests for Antoine Watson He left his home because of a family dispute and got in a traffic accident in San Francisco at 2 a.m. Vicha and Jintana Ratanapakdee on their wedding day in 1970. a mob descended on the Capitol early that month, Family of 84-Year-Old Killed in S.F. Monthanus could now see her father enter the frame as he climbed up the hill and to a corner where he would have continued straight. Eric and Monthanus being interviewed by a local TV station outside the Hall of Justice in San Francisco in July. The suspect was booked on suspicion of murder, elder abuse, and assault with a deadly weapon, KTVU reported. Now all that remained was the memory of him, the sound of his voice in her head. When she made it to the hill, she noticed a neighbor working in his garage and asked if he knew where the episode happened the other day. She felt similarly snubbed after asking the advocate about applying for compensation for lost wages. She tried to shield them from the video, but sometimes the evening news would be on and the footage would flash by before she could turn it off. These laws can add time to an underlying sentence; in California, they can extend a sentence by three years. Donations flooded into their GoFundMe page, and they blew past their goal of $10,000 within days. ET on March 15. Eric said the photo, which was taken from behind and does not show a face, made the person look hateful. hitType: 'event', One witness at the scene told officers that he saw a Black male, 18 to 30 years old, approach and stand over an elderly man lying on the ground. She had learned small details about the suspect from her initial conversations with the police: male, 19 years old, African American. He told Monthanus that when the time came, he wanted to be scattered in the bay, the place that became his home. [1] [2] [3] The assault was captured on a CCTV camera . She turned around to my son and said, Eff you, little boy. Each incident left her in shock and compelled her to attend the vigil. Legal Statement. But Mr. Chan says he has tallied more than two dozen assaults against Asian-American victims in Chinatown, including two other people shoved by the assailant who knocked down Mr. Diaz. During one appointment, the therapist asked if he felt angry, and he replied in that sheepish preteen way, I dont know. Monthanus knew the extra sessions were probably a lot, on top of school, weekend Thai and coding classes and the therapist he already sees to manage his A.D.H.D. After her graduation, when Ms. Monthanus married and decided to stay in San Francisco, Mr. Vicha and his wife came to help raise their grandchildren. pg.acq.push(function() { Stories like Vichas inspired some to start neighborhood-patrol groups to accompany elders on their walks to and from home, scan the streets for suspicious activity and, in some cases, call the police to intervene. },false) Antoine Watson, 19, . (The data, though incomplete, show that hate crimes against Asian Americans were more likely to be committed by nonwhite offenders than those against Hispanics or African Americans. Court documents give the victims name as Gilbert Diaz, and Carl Chan, a community leader and president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, said the victim was Latino. eventAction: 'click_ads' How many Vicha Ratanapakdees need to happen before you see anything at all?. Then the flood came. He always told me that if something happened to him, this must be passed on to grandchildren, she said. Youre not doing it right, her mother snapped at one point, grabbing the brush. Two days after Vicha died, Eric created a GoFundMe page to raise money for the funeral, which included a photo of Vicha and a description of his assailant derived from a mix of facts and raw emotion: A despicable 19-year-old thug that came to his neighborhood in a stolen vehicle and decided to prove how tough he was by brutalizing a senior citizen, Eric wrote. LAPD INVESTIGATES KOREATOWN ASSAULT ON AIR FORCE VETERAN DENNY KIM AS POSSIBLE HATE CRIME, According to theTimes, Boudin saidthatRatanapakdee'sdeath was heinous, but that there is no evidence to suggest the attackwas motivated by racial animus. eventAction: 'click_image_ads' In each case, the suspects were Black. Youre going to survive, Dad, Monthanus told him. I think he has to pay for what he did. Allen Martin reports on the first court appearance by the 19-year-old suspect who fatally assaulted an 84-year-old San Francisco man last week (2-3-2021) But once he does, we should work out some kind of situation where we could forgive somehow and move on with our life. Please enter valid email address to continue. San Francisco police arrest man who filmed attack of elderly Asian man collecting recyclables, Man punches elderly woman in head as she walks and then plays the victim in shocking random attack in Brooklyn.