Asian-owned grocery store in Charlotte, North Carolina, vandalized by man who wielded a metal pole and shouted racist slurs
CHARLOTTE – An Asian-owned grocery store in Charlotte, North Carolina, was vandalized by a man handling a metal pole and shouting racist slurs, according to police and a son of the store’s owners.
CCTV footage shows a man pulling a food rack on the floor and waving a street sign in the glass of the fridges. A man who shows up to a friend of the attacker’s cheers on him.
The attack took place on Tuesday at a store called Plaza Sundries, near Charlotte’s main transit center. And it falls in the aftermath of an attack on a woman of Asian descent in New York City and the fatal shooting of eight people in three massage companies in the Atlanta area. Six of those victims were women of Asian descent.
Despite the growing focus on such attacks, the violence and racially-laden language was nothing new, said Mark Sung, whose parents own the store, and his wife Grace Lee Sung.
“When my husband got the call (about the attack), it was routine,” said Lee Sung. “He was like,” Okay, check the crap. See the security. Make a (police) report. “
The pandemic has fueled tension, the couple said, with some people blaming the store’s owners for the coronavirus. They have lived in the US for decades since moving from South Korea.
“It’s like, ‘Hey, you’re different,’ said Lee Sung, with a clean summary of the insults. ‘Obviously, you can’t get out of here. Go back to your country.’ ‘
But the owners have experienced a different sentiment in the days since the attack: a woman arrived at the store and gave the owners soup. A pizza delivery boy came with five pies. A local doctor has delivered a check. More than $ 30,000 was raised through GoFundMe to cover the store’s damage.
“My in-laws are more shocked that people really care about the (attack) than they were,” said Lee Sung. “And it took them a while to understand why they were getting so much attention.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Xavier Rashee Woody-Silas was arrested by a company responsible for security at the transit center, The Charlotte Observer reported. He was arrested for theft with a dangerous weapon, making threats, disorderly conduct, injuring personal property and opposing a government official, according to public records. It is unclear whether he hired a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
National-level hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific islanders rose by 150% during the pandemic, according to a study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
The abundance of support for the store’s owners makes them feel “ heard, ” Lee Sung said of her in-laws.
“My mother-in-law can’t stop crying every time someone says, ‘I’m so sorry for what you’re going through,’ she said. “It’s just a reminder that – wow, it’s not supposed to be.”
But the family is moving forward cautiously.
“She’s also scared because she’s not used to all that attention,” said Mark Sung of his mother. So she’s a bit nervous too. … We’re just trying to be careful. “