Boudin, who started his term just a few months before the lockdown, in January 2020, inherited more than 5,000 criminal prosecutions. He ordered one after Vichas death, along with a few cans of pepper spray and security cameras he installed around their apartment. KGO obtained surveillance footage which apparently shows Antoine Watson, 19, knocking down Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, in front of his San Francisco home.Officers reportedly discovered Ratanapakdee on a sidewalk and rendered aid before paramedics rushed him to the hospital . But she and Eric feared that the trauma might manifest years, or decades, later. Watson allegedly carried out the deadly attack on senior citizen Vicha Ratanapakdee in the citys Anza Vista neighborhood on January 28, 2021. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Instead, he paused for a moment and turned right, as though whatever caught his eye made him decide to change course. After interviewing prosecutors across more than 30 states, Avlana Eisenberg, a law professor at Florida State University, found that district attorneys offices often avoid adding hate-crime charges even and perhaps especially when the crime is particularly horrific, she wrote in The Atlantic this year. Antoine Watson, a 19-year-old resident of neighboring Daly City, was arrested two days after the attack and charged with . "These violent assaults have a devastating impact on our community as they are part of an alarming rise in anti-Asian American hate during the COVID-19 pandemic," Stop AAPI Hate co foundersManjusha Kulkarni and Cynthia Choi said in a joint statement. One of them, a young organizer, told them about the Asian Americans who had marched beside him last summer and said he grew up with Asian neighbors and lately felt that everything is so separated. Another simply laid his hand over his chest during an impromptu speech and, looking at Monthanus, said, My heart goes out to you., Monthanus hasnt known what to really make of these gestures. Who is Antoine Watson? SF teen who killed 84-year-old man by - MEAWW A close friend, also searching, sent her two links that vaguely mentioned Vicha, including an article published in Chinese by KTSF, a local outlet serving a primarily Chinese American audience. After the attack, as her father lay on the ground, a couple driving by stopped to place a blanket on him. }) Often, the natural human response is to want someone to blame for the pain that youre experiencing. He added, Although our system is pretty effective at processing cases and punishing, were not effective at providing the kinds of answers to families in pain and need to feel a sense of closure, or to be able to move on with their lives after suffering often unthinkable harm., Most states 48, as well as the District of Columbia have laws addressing hate crimes that are motivated by a victims race, religion or sexual orientation, among other classifications. eventAction: 'click_adunit' But her mind swirled with bigger questions. Since his retirement in 1996 from Kasikornbank, one of Thailands largest financial institutions, Mr. Vicha had traveled between San Francisco, where his eldest daughter lives, and Thailand, where his youngest does. Please enter valid email address to continue. According to Sliman Nawabi, the public defender, Antoine feels remorse and shame for what happened and wishes he could sit down with Vichas family so he could explain the struggles he has gone through in life. Others have injured or killed people without saying a word. He must be happy now, because hes not coming back anymore! And sometimes, when they were alone and the guilt swelled inside Monthanus, she fell apart. The family of a Thai senior citizen who died after being violently knocked to the . We matter, and racism is killing us. When a video emerged showing a 91-year-old shoved to the ground in Chinatown in Oakland, Calif., the actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu posted a $25,000 reward for anyone who had more information on the suspect, tweeting, Remember Vincent Chin, who was beaten to death by two white men in Detroit in 1982. While it does not change the legal definition of a hate crime, the legislation commits funds to fast-track federal reviews of hate-crime investigations and approves grants for local law enforcement agencies. She was a Thai immigrant living in Alameda a diverse town, she said. The San Francisco District Attorneys office stated on Monday, February 8, that their detention plan to hold 19-year-old Antoine Watson without bail was granted by the court. The law was celebrated for recognizing the need to better track violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), The segment ran with Vichas photo and the headline Family of 84-Year-Old Killed in S.F. Believe Attack Was Racially Motivated., Vichas story joined a cluster of reports about attacks on Asian elders in four cities. Antoine Watson, 19, has been held in County Jail since being arrested Jan. 30 for allegedly charging into 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee two days earlier in the Anza Vista neighborhood. Watson was arrested along with a female associate he was with at the time of the assault. As they waited for Antoines hearing to start, Monthanus and Eric watched from the front row of the gallery as the judge heard a series of other cases. Maylasia Goo also arrested. Teen Who Pushed Elderly Thai Man to His Death Pleads Not Guilty to }); 84 Year-old Thai Man Brutally Attacked and Killed in San Francisco After her sons Zoom classes on Jan. 28, Monthanus began to worry about where her father was. There was no evidence depicted that the elderly man did anything to provoke the attack. The Department of Police stated that they identified Watson quickly. Security footage showed the assailant R Then, on a brisk and misty Northern California winter morning last month, he stepped outside. How long did he lie outside before an ambulance arrived? Everybody I talked to said it was from a Black person, he told me. }); Its like continuing to use a screwdriver when you need to use a saw.. More than 500 days after the incident, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Darwin ruled that the evidence presented by the District Attorney's Office is enough for a murder trial. On that morning a number of security cameras in the area captured Mr. Watson banging a car with his hand, according to Mr. Boudin, the district attorney. Man accused of fatally shoving Vicha Ratanapakdee enters preliminary }); His wife suggested that he have some coffee first; he told her he wouldnt be gone for long, whispering so as not to wake the kids. His comments tugged at a bigger, messier debate about race that had been building around the attacks. In recent years, the Asian percentage of the Bayviews population has become five times as large as it was in 1980, while the Black share has shrunk by more than half. If you miss Grandpa, she told him, go to his photo and say hi. Troy walked up to two framed portraits of his grandfather that now hung side by side on the wall. Family of 84-year-old killed in SF believe attack was racially motivated Her mother had been blaming karma for her fathers death; weakened by his recent heart operations, Vicha often joked that life was getting too painful to bear. . People use the "young teenager" label on him as an excuse to obviously protect him and his behavior. It appears that the defendant was in some sort of a temper tantrum, Mr. Boudin said. She thought about her father in the back of the car with the kids, their banter when she got ready for work in the morning. Im not a cop. In the hours before the attack, Mr. Watson had a string of setbacks. Monthanus didnt always agree with her father, but she loved his spirit. Poypiti Amatatham contributed reporting from Bangkok. After her graduation, when Ms. Monthanus married and decided to stay in San Francisco, Mr. Vicha and his wife came to help raise their grandchildren. Watson and his associate, 20-year-old Malaysia Goo, were arrested on January 30, 2021. Antoine turned around and smiled again, until the door closed on him. Monthanus Ratanapakdee praying for her father, Vicha, at the Nagara Dhamma Temple in San Francisco on Monday. Other celebrities joined in. Antoine Watson appears in court during a previous hearing. At one point, a neurologist hinted that if it were his father, he would most likely take him off life support. But AAPI still attacked, deeper, deeper every day. Throughout 2020, multiple strangers had come at her seemingly out of nowhere. Watson, the suspect identified in Ratanapakdee's murder,wasarrested and chargedwith murder and elder abuse. His orange jumpsuit fit loosely over his tall frame, chains linking his wrists, his hair growing out. Its the everyday little microaggressions and little nuances thats harder to tackle.. In an unprovoked attack, Antoine Watson, 19, charged at Vichar Ratanapakdee, 84, on Thursday during the senior's morning walk. reporters on a platform technologically tailored to meet the needs of the modern reader. Or am I just sensitive? June 18, 2022. Boudin says Antoine Watson was . Why did this happen? According to the San Francisco District Attorney's office, Watson had been observed and contacted by San Francisco Police officers earlier that Thursday morning for traffic infractions resulting in a minor collision. It was just the way that he answered the question that made me feel like he didnt really care about our emotions, about what we were asking about., Boudin, who couldnt discuss the particulars of the case, understood where Eric and Monthanus were coming from. Eric held her, and she held her sons. Theres been a half-million deaths. The group filed out to the edge of the deck. March 3, 2023 12:27 pm ET. Last week, Mayor London Breed, joined by Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Chesa Boudin, said violence in San Francisco would not be tolerated and that any perpetrators would "be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law," especially those who targeted children or the elderly. A photograph of Vicha Ratanapakdee that hangs in his daughters home. Monthanus was alone in the room with her sister on FaceTime. A web camera streamed the ceremony for friends and family abroad. In March, Jeung says, Stop AAPI Hate received roughly 2,800 reports, about the same number he received in all of 2020. "Our officers identified our suspect as 19-year-old Antoine Watson of Daly City. Friends scattered the flower petals. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), He has pleaded not guilty but his lawyer admits that his client had an outburst of rage.. She said: You are not a victim. An assailant, later identified by police as 19-year-old Antoine Watson, came barreling . As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. As she replayed the footage again and again, Monthanus kept coming back to the same conclusion. But Jeung grew wary when a doctor asked him if he had recently been to China, and again when he learned that his relatives had been marooned at a hotel near the airport after being told they couldnt board their flight back home. Ratanapakdeewas walking in the city's Anza Vista neighborhood on the morning of Jan.28 when he was violently shoved to the ground in whatBoudinreferred to as "a horrific, senseless attack". He died of a brain hemorrhage in a San Francisco hospital two days later. hitType: 'event', Murder charge for 19 year old who barrelled down - Thai Examiner Confronting anti-Asian violence, hate crimes, and killings in San My wife and I thought, Could it be? Jeung recalled. Man accused in street attack that killed 84-year-old Thai man in San For the past two years, Monthanus had started taking care of her parents more intensely, after her mother was diagnosed with dementia and her father with three clogged arteries. LAPD INVESTIGATES KOREATOWN ASSAULT ON AIR FORCE VETERAN DENNY KIM AS POSSIBLE HATE CRIME, According to theTimes, Boudin saidthatRatanapakdee'sdeath was heinous, but that there is no evidence to suggest the attackwas motivated by racial animus. SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The suspect in the brutal assault that fatally injured an 84-year-old San Francisco resident last week entered a not guilty plea to a homicide charge during a court appearance Wednesday. San Francisco's district attorney charged Antoine Watson, the 19-year-old accused of shoving Vicha to death, with murder and elder abuse. She had even persuaded him to leave his wallet at home, at least for another few weeks, when he was scheduled for his second shot of the coronavirus vaccine. A witness told the police they heard a voice shouting, Why you lookin at me? twice before hearing Ratanapakdee, prosecutors said. The future me, the real me, says, I wish we could forgive everybody, and everybody should acknowledge this bad thing happened. And right now it feels like, maybe, his family sees me as an enemy. Our seniors are afraid to walk their own streets, Mr. Chan said. I met Monthanus one breezy afternoon in April at Wat Nagara Dhamma, a Buddhist temple outfitted inside a small two-story house across the street from Golden Gate Park. I told him to walk that way. The San Francisco District Attorney's office told KPIX 5 on Monday that their detention motion to hold 19-year-old Antoine Watson without bail was granted by the court. Nawabi described the incident as an impulsive unmotivated assault that resulted from the mental-health breakdown of a teenager. They have any language to help anybody.. Police said they were quickly able to identify Watson as the assault suspect. The San Francisco District Attorney's office told KPIX 5 on Monday that their detention motion to hold 19-year-old Antoine Watson without bail was granted by the court. In an unprovoked attack, Antoine Watson, 19, charged at Vichar Ratanapakdee, 84, on Thursday during the senior's morning walk. Who is Antoine Watson? },false) Their younger son, Troy, a bright and playful 8-year-old who is autistic, had become more easily agitated during the lockdown and often stomped and shouted. I was like, There is something going on here. At the first few rallies they attended, Eric casually surveyed attendees, asking whether they had ever been spit on or pushed and what the race of the perpetrator was. That he still had a life ahead of him. A few hours after speaking with the nurse, a doctor called to ask permission to insert a catheter into a vein in his neck and drill a small hole into his skull, to release pressure from bleeding. A few days later, Eric asked me if I saw the news about the recent attack on Carl Chan, the head of Oaklands Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, who has been a vocal supporter of increasing foot patrols and camera surveillance in the neighborhood. Monthanus and Eric posed for photos and signed a petition to recall Chesa Boudin, as people stopped to greet them with elbow bumps and condolences. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. San Francisco man to stand trial in death of Vicha Ratanapakdee Solidarity is what it should be, she says. When Monthanus talked about these incidents, how the outside world didnt feel safe anymore, her father would ask, Is it really that bad? eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Within one week of the websites start, Stop AAPI Hate received 673 reports of verbal and physical attacks, as well as other forms of harassment, like spitting, coughing and online threats. Send him story tips at lucas.manfredi@fox.com. hitType: 'event', She had always looked to her father when something troubled her conscience. After Vicha died, Eric says, he saw so many videos, video after video of attacks in the news. He told Monthanus that when the time came, he wanted to be scattered in the bay, the place that became his home. Its still there. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Youre going to survive, Dad, Monthanus told him. We're less than two weeks away from the start of NFL free agency, which begins at 4 p.m. (CBS), deadly attack of Vicha Ratanapakdee in the city's Anza Vista neighborhood on January 28, pled not guilty to charges of murder and elder abuse causing death, and that any perpetrators would "be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,", Public File for KBCW-TV / KBCW 44 Cable 12. Among the most alarming were the stories of a 57-year-old Asian woman who was pushed off a railway platform onto the tracks, and an 83-year-old Asian man who died from a head injury after being assaulted by a group of boys. Video footage played during witness testimony this week shows Antoine Watson . Two arrested in connection with death of 84-year-old man in SF - SFGATE Police arrested two people Saturday in connection with Thursday's filmed attack that left an elderly California man dead. When she finished, the defendant lifted his glasses and wiped his eyes. Even without much publicity, we have already received a strong response from the community, who want their voices heard, Jeung wrote in the groups first report. In July, however, the F.B.I. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin hassparked outrage on social mediaafter telling the New York Times that 19-year-old AntoineWatsonwas "in some sort of a temper tantrum" when he allegedly attacked84-year-oldThai immigrant Vichar Ratanapakdee. Killing of Vicha Ratanapakdee - Wikipedia San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin has sparked outrage on social media after telling the New York Times that 19-year-old Antoine Watson was "in some sort of a temper tantrum" when he . . San Francisco man to stand trial in death of Thai man, 84 - KCRA Asian Americans in San Francisco are leading the campaign to recall the city's far-left District Attorney Chesa Boudin on June 7. . Vicha was one of only a few people in the village who spoke English well, Mr. Surachai said. We said, Dad, we are going to go back soon! Ms. Monthanus recalled. A witness told police officers that Mr. Watson said something to the effect of What are you looking at? A security camera located inside a neighbors apartment captured Mr. Watson charging across the pavement toward Mr. Vicha, who briefly turned to his assailant before the impact. Intravenous lines and electrode patches linked his body to a constellation of machines and bags of fluid. window.adsContainer = {"positionAfterTitle":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle5_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position2":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_After_Title_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position3":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Below_Next_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position4":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position5":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle1_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position6":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle2_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position7":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle3_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position8":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle4_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position9":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle5_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position10":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle6_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position11":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle7_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position12":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle8_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position13":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle9_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position14":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle10_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position15":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle11_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position16":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle12_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"positionTop":{"code":"Article_Desktop_970x250_Header_Rel","isOrganicUserAd":false,"max_width":970,"max_height":250},"positionBottom":{"code":"Article_Desktop_Sidebar_Bottom_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":300,"max_height":600},"positionBottomRight":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_After_Title_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":336,"max_height":280}} Tuesday morning, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Chesa Boudin denounced the recent rise in violent crimes in the city, particularly the fatal assaults on Ratanapakdee and 76-year-old private investigator Jack Palladino. Thai man brutally killed - Bangkok Post Monthanus and Eric voted for him. On her drive home, Monthanus thought about a defendant she saw earlier in the courtroom. Vicha Ratanapakdee as he is knocked to the ground Thursday by an attacker later identified as 19-year-old Antoine Watson in San Francisco, at left, and Vicha in an undated photo, at right. Vicha and Jintana Ratanapakdee on their wedding day in 1970. a mob descended on the Capitol early that month, Family of 84-Year-Old Killed in S.F. They asked the state attorney generals office to help them track what they believed to be a growing number of episodes. A strange voice picked up. Watson entered a not guilty plea to charges of murder and elder abuse causing death during the brief court appearance. I know its not a scientific poll or whatever. The responses confirmed a thought in his mind all the same. The footage is grainy and brief: A tall figure suddenly darts across a street and slams into a much smaller one; the smaller figure crumples onto the pavement and doesnt get back up; the white baseball cap flutters to the ground, like a leaf falling from a tree.