A Manhattan promoting govt was stabbed to demise in her personal residence, along with her personal kitchen knife, by a homeless man out on bail who adopted her into the constructing, prosecutors stated on Monday.
Assamad Nash, a 25-year-old vagrant with a prolonged rap sheet, appeared in court docket on Monday charged with homicide and housebreaking within the deadly stabbing of Christina Yuna Lee, whom he adopted into her Decrease East Facet residence after she got here dwelling from an evening out.
He stabbed her within the lavatory of her residence, with Lee preventing again – Nash was discovered bloodied and lined in scratches after the assault.
‘I didn’t kill no person,’ Nash stated whereas being led to his arraignment on Monday.
Nash has three extra open felony instances – one for assaulting a Brooklyn man, 63-year-old David Elliot, in a subway station.
He has been arrested a number of occasions for assault, possession of medication and harassment during the last two years. He was due again in court docket for the Elliot case subsequent month and is at the moment being held in Bellevue hospital for psychiatric analysis.
Elliot, who works at Rutgers College, instructed The New York Submit he was shocked the ‘clearly’ mentally in poor health Nash was free to roam the streets after attacking him at Grand Central Station.
‘I used to be watching the information at 5 o’clock, and I seen them taking him out of the residence and I stated, ‘That’s the man that f***ing hit me!” Elliot stated.
‘He shouldn’t have been out on the streets — hell no.’
Assamad Nash, 25, is seen on Monday showing earlier than a choose charged with the homicide within the early hours of Sunday of Christina Yuna Lee, 35
Nash was remanded in custody after the listening to, and is present process psychiatric analysis at Bellevue hospital
The homeless 25-year-old has a prolonged rap sheet and was out on bail for punching a subway passenger within the face in September
Nash is alleged to have seen Lee getting out of an Uber and adopted her into her constructing, the place he barged into her residence behind her, grabbed a knife from her kitchen, and stabbed her to demise in her lavatory
Elliot stated he was swiping a good friend into the subway when Nash approached him and instructed him not to do this. Elliot ignored him, and Nash punched him within the face.
‘He got here out of nowhere and simply hit me,’ Elliot instructed the paper.
‘I used to field. I had 4 stitches from that punch. I really feel he had one thing in his hand, like, between his knuckles, as a result of for as a few years as I boxed, you don’t get break up like that.’
Elliot chased Nash out of the station, and known as police when he noticed him darting between vehicles. He later recognized him as his attacker.
Elliot stated he feels horrible for Lee and her household.
‘Lock these guys up and hold them there. This man clearly has a number of psychological points,’ he stated.
‘We should always simply make certain he stays in jail.’
Residents close to the sufferer’s constructing in Chinatown held a rally on Monday to decry violence towards the Asian group.
Lee, 35, was coming dwelling Sunday morning about 4:30 from an evening out at a membership when Nash noticed her getting out of an Uber, her landlord Brian Chin stated.
Safety video captured Nash creeping into the constructing behind Lee, who didn’t discover her stalker.
Nash hung again because the digital producer climbed the six flights to her residence, Chin stated, climbing up one ground under as she went.
He rushed her as she unlocked her residence door and entered her residence, police stated.
Assamad Nash, 25, is charged with homicide of Christina Yuna Lee, who was stabbed to demise in her sixth ground residence. Safety video reveals Nash, a profession felony, following her into the constructing and dashing her as she unlocked her residence door
Nash, 25, has been arrested seven occasions since 2017 and at the moment has three open instances within the Manhattan Prison Courtroom
Nash is pushed away by police after being arraigned for homicide of Christina Yuna Lee
The profession felony has three extra open instances, together with one for assaulting a person in a subway station
Neighbors had been woke up Sunday morning to Lee’s blood-curdling screams of ‘Please, assist me. Name 911.’
Star Fitz, 21, who lives down the corridor stated she instantly known as police, who had been patrolling close by and arrived immediately.
By then Nash had barricaded himself within the residence with the fatally wounded Lee, who lay bleeding to demise within the bathtub.
Police had been pressured to noticed their approach into the unit.
In accordance with studies, it took police 90 minutes to lastly enter the residence.
They discovered Nash hiding underneath the mattress, the New York Submit reported.
Nash was due in court docket on March 3 for the assault on Elliot.
In accordance with ABC7, he has been arrested a minimum of seven occasions since 2015, most just lately on January 6, 2022.
Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was stabbed to demise in her New York Metropolis residence ‘by homeless serial felony’
Chinatown residents maintain photograph of Christina Yuna Lee, who was stabbed to demise in her residence on Sunday, throughout vigil on Monday
Physique of Christina Yuna Lee is wheeled out after she was stabbed to demise in her residence
Chilling footage reveals the assassin, named as Nash, observe Christina Yuna Lee by means of the hallway of her Chinatown residence constructing
Yuna was discovered knifed in her bathtub, and couldn’t be saved, with Nash additionally stated to have been found hiding underneath his alleged victims’ mattress
In accordance with court docket information accessed by DailyMail.com, Nash has been arrested 4 occasions within the final 12 months alone.
His rap sheet included misdemeanor prices of assault, intentional injury to property, harassment, resisting arrest, each tried and profitable escape from law enforcement officials and promoting a fare card.
Three of those instances stay open, and he has appeared in court docket on quite a few events.
He was set to seem once more earlier than a choose on March 9 on the assault, harassment and intentional injury to property prices.
‘This all may have been prevented,’ Lee’s landlord, Brian Chin, instructed reporters Sunday night time.
‘This man ought to by no means have been out of the road. And it’s DA Alvin Bragg enjoying politics with folks’s lives and the Asian group has been damage.
‘To have a DA who has gained these horrific crimes proper on his doorstep. And he doesn’t even hassle to indicate up. It’s disgraceful.’
Nash is pictured being arrested following Sunday’s stabbing at sufferer Christina Yuna Lee’s residence
It’s unclear if Nash knew Lee, however in line with New York Each day Information, investigators recovered surveillance video that reveals the suspect following Lee into her constructing after she was dropped off by a cab.
‘He adopted her up all six flights. And he or she by no means even knew that he was there,’ Chin stated.
‘She walked up six flights of stairs and this man mercilessly stalked her. This was not a criminal offense of psychological sickness or something.
‘He stayed one ground under and watched her go up these stairs. After which he moved methodically one flight up at a time. He was completely in full management.’
The prior allegations towards Nash embody the assault on Elliot – however that alleged assault was deemed insufficiently severe to carry him in custody pending trial, due to New York’s bail reform legal guidelines geared toward reducing the state’s jail inhabitants.
‘Our elected officers have to do one thing a lot completely different,’ Chin stated.
‘My grandparents are Chinese language immigrants that got here right here making an attempt to construct themselves up,’ he added.
‘We constructed up this group and it’s simply getting torn down so quick by one district lawyer. It’s coronary heart wrenching.’
Chin stated Nash ought to have been in jail and blamed the insurance policies of Bragg, who has confronted harsh criticism for his soft-on-crime method throughout his first month in workplace.
‘That is simply so horrific on so many ranges,’ Chin stated.
‘She didn’t do something mistaken. She didn’t deserve this.
‘If this man acquired away, I can’t even think about what would occur,’ he added.
Chinatown residents say that the neighborhood is on edge after the brutal random killing.
They held a rally Monday afternoon calling on politicians to do one thing in regards to the homelessness and psychological well being disaster plaguing the town.
‘That is yet one more Asian girl killed in her residence,’ Chinatown activist Jackie Wong stated.
‘She did nothing mistaken. The one mistake she made was transferring to New York to make the town her dwelling.
‘We all know the Lee household misplaced a beloved one, and we share their ache.’
Wong stated that they don’t but know whether or not the assault was racially motivated.
‘I don’t wish to leap to the conclusion that Christina can also be a sufferer of hate crime as a result of it’s nonetheless pending, the investigation,’ Wong stated.
‘However that is one other Asian-American who was brutally attacked and what’s worse is that she was killed in her personal residence. It simply shatters our group.’
One other activist, Mary Wang, instructed CBS Information: ‘What number of extra folks need to die earlier than they modify the coverage, earlier than they do one thing?’
Chinatown group organizers held a rally on Monday after the homicide of Christina Yuna Lee to boost consciousness to the open-air drug use, psychological sickness, homelessness and Anti-Asian violence which have plagued the neighborhood
Lee’s residence at 111 Chrystie Road is a block over from the Bowery, which is thought for its cluster of meals pantries and homeless shelters.
To focus on the difficulty locally, group organizers handing out maps displaying the areas of 5 homeless shelters within the neighborhood with three extra deliberate to be added to the realm.
‘Now unexpectedly on high of these 5 shelters they’re dumping three extra,’ Chinatown activist Jackie Wong stated on the rally.
‘We’re like sufficient is de facto sufficient. That’s why we we’re having issues.’
Throughout the road from her constructing Sara Roosevelt Park, has been a sizzling mattress of avenue crime, homelessness and open-air drug use.
Ok. Webster, the president of the Sara Roosevelt Park Coalition, stated that the homeless have been across the neighborhood for many years, however there was an inflow of mentally in poor health homeless which have created a brand new hazard within the neighborhood.
‘We now have homeless individuals who assist,’ she stated.
‘We now have homeless individuals who stopped a rape. We now have homeless individuals who have who discovered the man who assaulted a lady, who helped the police discover the perpetrator.
‘So we now have had homeless folks and that’s one class after which we now have people who find themselves mentally in poor health. You possibly can’t have mentally in poor health folks working across the streets.’
Chin instructed reporters that constructing has cameras on each ground, and that his household had put in metal doorways on all of the residences.
‘We now have such tight safety on this constructing we now have metal doorways,’ Chin stated. ‘It took a swat crew over 10 minutes to realize entry. These doorways are designed to maintain monsters out.’
However the suspect nonetheless discovered his approach in.
‘She acquired out of a cab proper right here and he adopted her,’ Chin stated.
‘He grabbed the entrance door simply earlier than it closed. He adopted her all the best way up, hanging again, staying one ground behind her all the best way as much as the sixth ground. Then, he waited till her door was nearly closed and he went in.’
Chin described Lee as a ‘great human being’ whose ‘smile lit up the room.’
‘She got here to the town for the lure of New York, you realize, just like the Huge Apple, the massive metropolis, you realize, boundless alternatives,’ he stated.
Protester attends rally decrying violence towards Asians after homicide in Chinatown
In accordance with Lee’s web site and LinkedIn web page, she’s a New York-based inventive producer dealing in national-scale advertising and marketing content material for choose names like Google, Twix, Equinox, TOMS, Cole Haan and ALDO.
‘A lot blood. My wife stated I ought to name somebody to wash all of the blood however I’m going to wash it up myself. It’s the least I can do for that poor lady,’ the constructing’s proprietor stated.
‘She’s from New Jersey, been right here lower than a 12 months,’ Chin instructed The Submit. ‘Such a candy lady.
One other neighbor, Zyana Salazar, 27, instructed DailyMail.com: ‘I simply really feel like he shouldn’t been out.
‘He was been let loose with no bail.
‘You recognize, this is the reason that occurred.’
New York Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted that she was in mourning.
‘We now have seen far too many acts of violence towards AAPI New Yorkers in current months. We should make certain each group is secure in our state.
‘I be a part of New Yorkers standing collectively in help of our AAPI associates & neighbors.’
New York Mayor Eric Adams equally condemned the homicide.
‘I and New Yorkers throughout the town mourn for the harmless girl murdered in her dwelling final night time in Chinatown and stand with our Asian brothers and sisters at this time,’ Adams stated in an announcement on Sunday.
‘The NYPD is investigating this horrific incident, and I thank them for apprehending the suspect. Whereas the suspect who dedicated this heinous act is now in custody, the situations that created him stay. The mission of this administration is evident: We gained’t let this violence go unchecked.’
Crime within the metropolis has continued to spike, with general crime having elevated 41.65 %, theft up almost 35 %, and violent felonies up 13.3 % by means of February 6 from the identical time final 12 months.
In the meantime, almost each police precinct in New York Metropolis has reported spikes in crime this 12 months – together with 5 wherein the speed has doubled, new information from the New York Police Division reveals.
‘No neighborhood is secure,’ one Brooklyn cop instructed The New York Submit on Tuesday, providing a grim forecast for the way forward for the crime-ravaged metropolis.
‘At this charge, we are going to lose the town by St. Patrick’s Day.’
