A Sri Lankan immigrant attacked on a train in Manhattan last week was the victim of an anti-Asian attack, an eyewitness told The Post on Sunday.
Straphanger George Okrepkie, 56, said he was standing in front of 68-year-old Narayange Bodhi on Friday afternoon when a fedora man approached the older rider and said: “You, mother, king of Asia!” and punched him.
“Suddenly, the guy was right on top of the old man, making a stabbing motion, hitting him on the head,” Okrepkie said. “In a few seconds, the blood was everywhere [victim].
“The attacker jumped off the guy. I tried to grab it [the attacker]. I could not. The doors were already opening and he was walking in front of the train. I turned my attention to the victim and made a tourniquet to keep the blood out of his head, “said Okrepkie – who used his new Burberry scarf to prevent the bleeding.
The attacker escaped when the train stopped at Franklin Street station, the witness said.
Okrepkie captured Bodhi’s bloodied face in a photo that has since gone viral.
“I took a picture, just because I wanted to make sure I memorized what was really going on,” he said of the attack and others against Asian-Americans. “It’s not about people being hindered or pushed or [receiving] racial insults – people are dramatically injured. ”
An NYPD spokesman told The Post on Sunday that the department had no evidence that the attack was racially motivated.
But Okrepkie, who said he stayed with the victim for 15 minutes until the EMT and police arrived, told The Post: “I don’t know what the hell you have to do to call it a hate crime.
“I think that today there are fewer Asian people and they are such a big part of our city. It is a vast group of people. They’re Vietnamese, they’re Chinese, they’re from Korea, Japan. This [attacker] he didn’t care where the guy was from. [The victim] he just looked Asian. ”
New York City is facing an increase in attacks on people of Asian descent. Last year, there were 28 such racially motivated attacks, compared to only two in 2019.
Bodhi could not be reached for comment.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore