Man charged with attempted murder for stomping on Asian woman 67 and punching her over 125 times
A Yonkers man has been charged with attempted murder after he was caught on video punching a 67-year-old Asian woman over 125 times and stomping on her as she tried to get into her apartment.
Tammel Esco, 42, was arrested at the scene and taken to Westchester County Jail on Friday at around 6.15pm.
Esco, who spent time in prison for assault and criminal sale of a controlled substance, allegedly yelled a racial slur at the woman when she walked by him on her way home. Authorities are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Surveillance footage shows the victim fiddling with her keys while trying to unlock her front door when Esco creeps up behind her and knocks her down with a punch to the head. He beat her repeatedly with alternating fists and stomped on her before walking out as she writhed in pain in front of her apartment.
The woman, who is in stable condition at the hospital, suffered cuts to her head and face, facial bone fractures and bleeding on the brain, according to Yonkers police.
Anti-Asian hate crimes have been on the rise since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China. Anti-asian crimes went up 76 percent in 2020, according to the FBI’s latest data.
Friday’s attack happened in Yonkers, a city in Westchester County just outside of New York City. Crime in the city is up by 45 percent compared to this time last year, with robbery up by 43.5 percent and assault up by 17.2 percent.
Tammel Esco, 42, has been charged with attempted murder after he was caught on video punching a 67-year-old Asian woman over 125 times and stomping on her on Friday
Authorities are investigating the incident as a hate crime because Esco allegedly yelled a racial slur at her when she passed him by before the beating
Esco followed the unidentified victim to the vestibule in front of her front door on Friday night. The woman is in stable condition, but suffered bleeding from the brain and cuts and facial bone fractures
Police arrived at the building to find the unidentified victim bloodied in the vestibule while Esco was still outside. He has been charged with assault and attempted murder.
Video of Friday’s attack shows the woman, dressed in a black hoodie and pants, pushing a cart into her building’s vestibule.
She reaches for her keys and begins to unlock the door when Esco, who was walking behind her, watches her from behind the glass door for a couple of seconds.
The attack happened in Yonkers, a suburb right outside of New York City. During the month of February, the NYPD reported a 58.7 percent increase in total crime
He quickly barges into the vestibule and punches her in the head, alternating his fists in quick succession as he strikes her over 125 times in next minute-and-a-half.
He then switches to stomping, at one point taking a breather after over-exerting himself during the attack.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano condemned the attack.
‘Hate crimes are beyond intolerable in our city. I applaud our Yonkers Police for swiftly apprehending this violent criminal and removing him from our streets,’ Spano said in a statement Monday.
‘I expect the suspect to be charged to the fullest extent of the law for his heinous actions. I continue to keep the victim and her family in our thoughts and prayers.’
Yonkers Police Commissioner John Mueller called the attack ‘despicable.’
‘And targeting her because of her race makes it more so,’ Mueller said. ‘
‘This defendant must be held to the maximum punishment allowed by law to send a clear message that hateful, violent behavior will not be tolerated in our communities. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim and her family, that she may make a full recovery.’
Esco has previously been charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and second degree assault.
He served time in prison from May 2011 to October 2013. His post-release supervision expired in 2018, according to state records.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano condemned the attack in a statement on Monday, calling it a ‘hate crime’ and saying that Esco must be ‘held to the maximum punishment allowed by law’
The FBI found that 8,263 criminal hate crime incidents were reported to them in 2020, an increase of about 504 incidents since 2019. The spike comes as more local law enforcement agencies report crime incidents in their jurisdictions to the FBI compared to previous years
Asian Americans in NYC have experienced a 343 percent increase in hate crimes in 2021, with 133 attacks
Crime in the city is up by 45 percent compared to this time last year, with robbery up by 43.5 percent and assault up by 17.2 percent
Anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked by 76 percent in 2020, according to official FBI data.
The number of hate crimes reported in the US in 2020 – 8,263 – was the highest recorded since 2001.
Overall, most of last year’s hate crimes, nearly 50 percent of them, were against black people.
In New York City, just a few miles from Yonkers, hate crimes surged a shocking 96 percent throughout 2021.
Asian hate crimes in the city skyrocketed 343 percent from 2020 to 2021 as the pandemic rattled on, with 133 Asian Americans experiencing terrifying and dangerous experiences of discrimination, according to recent data from the NYPD.
Last month, a 35-year-old Asian advertising creative was knifed to death in her Chinatown apartment by a homeless serial criminal who was free on bail.
Christina Yuna Lee was from New Jersey and had spearheaded campaigns for brands including Equinox and Google.
Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was stabbed to death in her New York City apartment by a homeless serial criminal. Assamad Nash, 25, has been arrested for her murder after she was found dead in the blood-soaked bathtub of her Chinatown apartment
Body of Christina Yuna Lee is wheeled out after she was stabbed to death in her apartment
Assamad Nash, 25, was accused of murdering Lee while on bail for a prior assault
Assamad Nash, 25, was arrested for the February 13 murder of Lee. Terrifying footage showed the man police say is him creep into the building behind Lee after she got out of a cab.
Lee’s body was found in a blood-soaked bathtub in her apartment. Her landlord blamed District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s soft-on-crime policies for the killing.
40-year-old consultant Michelle Go was killed after a homeless man shoved her in front of a subway car in January. Her murder started calls for safety in NYC’s subway system
In one of the first notable crimes of the year, Deloitte executive Alyssa Go was pushed in front of an oncoming train at West 42nd Street and Broadway the morning on January 15.
Go, who lived on the Upper East Side, was randomly targeted, police said.
Simon Martial, 61, was charged with second-degree murder.
Martial has a history of mental illness and told reporters to ‘go f*** yourself’ as he was walked out of a Midtown precinct later that night, declaring himself ‘God.’
‘Yeah because I’m God,’ he said when asked if he killed Go, the New York Post reported. ‘Yes I did. I’m God, I can do it.’
He then claimed: ‘She stole my f***ing jacket, that’s why.’
The mayors of New York City and Washington DC are now advising homeless people to seek shelter in public facilities to avoid an on-the-run serial killer who they believe has shot at least five homeless men in the last month, killing two.
Martial has a criminal record of at least three arrests dating back to 1998. His sister told the New York Post that her brother has a history of mental illness
In the last month, at least five homeless men have been shot – two of them fatally – and one has been found dead in what police fear may be a string of attacks by the same person
NYPD officers at the scene where another homeless person was found dead on Murray Street near Varick Street in New York on Sunday night
The serial killer most recently struck in the early hours of Saturday morning, killing one homeless man and shooting another in the arm within a period of just one hour.
On Sunday, a third New York City homeless man was found dead in Tribeca. It did not appear that he had been shot, but police are now working to determine his cause of death.
Earlier this month, three homeless men were shot and killed in separate attacks in Washington DC. Police now believe that the three DC men- and one New York City man who was shot on Saturday – were all targeted by the same person.
WASHINGTON DC
March 3:Homeless man is shot in DC but survives
March 8:Second homeless man shot in DC but survives
March 9:Third homeless man found in DC. His body is found inside a tent, on fire. Autopsy confirms he was shot and stabbed
NEW YORK CITY
March 12, 4.30am: Homeless man shot in the arm on King Street, NYC.
He woke up and confronted the shooter, asking him: ‘What the hell are you doing?’
March 12, 5pm: After receiving a 911 call, cops find homeless man dead inside his sleeping bag at 148 Lafayette Street.
Surveillance footage shows he was shot nearly 12 hours earlier at 6am.
As NYPD officers work to catch the suspected serial killer, Mayor Eric Adams and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser are telling homeless people to seek shelter urgently.
DailyMail.com obtained an internal memo that the NYPD sent out to precincts alerting cops about the pre-dawn attacks on homeless men in Manhattan and Washington, D.C., noting that ‘in all incidents, victims were sleeping in a public space during the first platoon.’
Officers were directed to immediately survey their patrol areas and engage with homeless individuals, advise them about the incidents and show them wanted flyers with pictures of the person of interest, while also checking on their well-being and offering shelter and other services.
‘Members assigned to the Patrol Services Bureau precincts area to conduct frequent grid canvasses of their assigned sector or area of deployment, utilizing a systematic block by block method,’ the memo adds. ‘Special attention should be given to areas prone to encampment.’
In a joint statement on Sunday night, the pair said: ‘Our communities in DC and New York City are heartbroken and disturbed by these heinous crimes in which an individual has been targeting some of our most vulnerable residents.
‘The two of us spoke about how our teams can coordinate and help one another, and we are calling on everyone in our cities to look at the images of the suspect and report any information, however small, that may be useful.
‘The work to get this individual off our streets before he hurts or murders another individual is urgent.
‘As our law enforcement agencies work quickly with federal partners to locate the suspect, we are also calling on unsheltered residents to seek shelter.’
Many asked where exactly they expect the homeless to go.
In New York City, there are estimated to be around 93,000 homeless people and around 1,618 in DC.
