A 74-year-old Filipino man was killed in his own house in Arizona, United States, which some groups say a potential case of hate crime among Asians.
Police report said that Juanito Falcon was on his morning walk last February 16 when he was suddenly attacked by suspect Marcus Williams for “no apparent reason” according to an ABS-CBN News report.
The NBC News reported that Falcon sustained head injuries and later on declared dead in the hospital.
“It is in such great sorrow that we are mourning my father’s passing. I have a lot of questions. Nobody should experience what happened to my father. I want this incident to be a cause of awareness to everybody,” Falcon’s daughter Malou Acunin told NBC.
The police said that the 40-year-old suspect has been arrested but no indications yet that it was indeed a hate crime.
The Philippines has sent a note verbale to the US State Department after an elderly Filipino was attacked on the New York subway.
Earlier this month, Filipino administrative assistant Noel Quintana was slashed on his face from ear to ear as the number of cases on Asian hate crimes continues to increase.
Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez told ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo that he filed the note verbale in February.
“I wrote letters to some senators, sa justice committee nila tsaka ‘yung sa racial discrimination committee ng US Senate,” he added.
Romualdez said that hate crimes against Asian-Americans began to increase since September.
“We already called the attention of the State Department at sinabi namin sa kanila na mukhang binibiktima ang Asian-Americans dahil ang tawag nga ng gobyerno dito noon ay China virus,” he said.
Some 4.5 million Filipinos reside in the US. The largest Filipino community in the US is in California with 1.5 million Filipinos. (TDT)
