NYC subway rider sprays Asian man with Febreze and yells at him to ‘move’ in suspected hate crime as mounting coronavirus cases put city on edge
- Incident occurred on Wednesday morning on N train in Sunset Park, Brooklyn
- Black man confronts Asian straphanger and sprays him with Febreze
- NYPD is investigating the incident as a possible hate crime
- Other Asians have been assaulted or harassed over coronavirus fears
Police are investigating a possible hate crime after an alarming video surfaced showing a subway rider yelling at an Asian man and spraying him with Febreze.
The incident occurred on an N train in Sunset Park, Brooklyn on Wednesday morning, according to the New York Post, and video of it was first posted to Facebook by another person on the train.
‘Tell him to move,’ the aggressor shouts at the Asian man. A woman off camera replies asking why the man should move.
‘Because he’s standing right f***ing next to me! … Tell him to move. Tell him to move,’ the man shouts.
‘Tell him to move,’ the aggressor shouts at the Asian man. A woman off camera replies asking why the man should move.
As the Asian man stands silently next to a door, the other man grabs a bottle of Febreze he appears to have been carrying in a laundry bag, and begins spraying it at the victim.
‘Move! I asked you nicely,’ he says.
A second video, which appears to have been shot just moments after the first one, shows the Asian man confronting the subway sprayer.
‘Why is that? Why can’t I sit next to you?’ the victim yells. A woman pulls him aside as the assailant repeatedly tells him ‘You better move – you’re being dumb right now. You’re being dumb.’
Police responded to a 911 call about the incident but the train had left the station.
As the Asian man stands silently next to a door, the other man grabs a bottle of Febreze he appears to have been carrying in a laundry bag, and begins spraying it at the victim
Moments later, the Asian man confronts the sprayer, saying ‘Why is that? Why can’t I sit next to you?’
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.
Although the video shows no mention of race, several Asian people in New York City have previously been attacked in racially motivated incidents over coronavirus fears.
The MTA decried the incident as racist in a tweet saying that ‘racism’ doesn’t work ‘in stopping the spread of the Coronavirus.’
Actress Celia Au, who is Chinese-American, tweeted the video, saying: ‘There’s not a single confirmed case of an Asian infected in NYC. Stop discriminating cause the virus definitely doesn’t.’
So far, there are 22 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York state. The race of most of the patients is unknown, but health officials say that none recently traveled to Asia.