Bayside Resident Assaulted by Bigot in Anti-Asian Attack Caught on Camera

Man caught on video making racist statements (Sungmin Kwon/ Facebook)

June 19, 2020 By Allie Griffin

A Bayside resident was assaulted by an alleged bigot at a local 7-Eleven last week and the whole incident was caught on tape.

Sungmin Kwon, a South Korean student at Queens College, was picking up snacks at the convenience store, located at 218-01 Northern Blvd., on June 13 when he heard a white man allegedly making anti-Asian statements.

Kwon wrote in a Facebook post that he heard the man calling Asians filthy and saying that they do not belong in the U.S. He then called him out for the comments.

The alleged bigot then tried to kick Kwon and called him a “g–k.” Kwon, according to his post, then decided to pull out his phone and film the man.

In the video posted to Facebook, a man wearing a blue shirt can be heard saying, “Get the f–k out of here you g–k” and taunting Kwon.

The man reaches for Kwon’s phone and pushes him to the ground, again calling him a “f–king g–k,” the video shows.

Kwon called the police after the incident, but the man had already left before officers arrived, the New York Daily News reported.

Kwon, in a statement, said he was very disturbed by the attack and racist comments. He described them “intolerable and ugly.”

“I put up the video because I wanted to send the message of how disgusting racism is and it’s still alive and well no matter where you are,” he said.

The NYPD confirmed there is a report of the incident on file and said the Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating.

State Sen. John Liu, whose district includes Bayside, condemned the assault in a statement.

“This incident is a show of disgusting behavior by a violent hateful racist physically attacking Sungmin while calling him ‘g–k’, a racial slur of the highest degree of offense to Asian-Americans,” Liu said.

“It also reminds us of the discrimination Asian-Americans have faced during the COVID-19 crisis, having been heavily scapegoated for the pandemic.”