Authorities arrest 15-year-old after videotaped attack on Asian couple

Authorities arrested a 15-year-old boy in Tacoma, Washington, after an apparent attack on an Asian couple.

The attack was filmed and widely circulated on social media.

What are the details?

According to CNN, the Tacoma Police Department said that the teen, who remains unnamed, has been charged with second-degree assault.

In the video, a person wearing a red shirt can be seen approaching a male and a female on a Washington street. The person in the red shirt — identified to be the teen — can be seen swinging at the male and the woman begins crying out. In a second clip, the male victim “is being cursed at and seems to be pushed or struck,” the outlet reported, “thought it is unclear in the video whether it is the same attacker or another person as part of a group.”

The attack, according to police, took place in November 2020, and the victim did not know the identity of their attacker.

“A complaint was filed at the time, she said, but police did not connect it to the video until family members of the victims recognized their relatives in the footage,” CNN added.

Tacoma Police Public Information Officer Wendy Haddow told CNN that the victims’ family recognized their relatives in footage that had been circulating online and on the news.

What else?

An Asian man who identified himself as one of the victims told KIRO-TV on Wednesday that he forgives the attacker.

“I want him to be better,” he said in Korean. “I want him to know this was bad.”

The unnamed victim said he just couldn’t understand why he was targeted for attack, but said that he could only imagine because is is Asian.

“I have to think so,” he said. “I’m Asian. I’m older, and I’m not that big.”

He said the attack took place when he was on a walk near his apartment when he and his wife saw four teenaged people approaching him.

“I thought they were messing around with each other and accidentally bumped into me,” he recalled. “So I asked, ‘You OK? You OK? … A fist came flying in, hit me … and I started bleeding.”

NBC News reported that the man suffered a broken rib in the attack.

(Content warning: Rough language):