String of assaults on Asians on San Francisco streets leads to arrest, police say

A man accused of “unprovoked” attacks on several Asian passers-by in San Francisco has been arrested, police say.

Michael Lopez, 43, faces charges including assault with a deadly weapon, battery, hate crimes and possessing methamphetamine, police said in a news release.

Police say it’s not clear whether racial bias motivated the series of attacks around 8 a.m. Monday at Polk and Clay streets near the Polk Gulch neighborhood, although all the victims are Asian.

The string of incidents began when Lopez followed two Asian women and threw something at one of them when they ran away, police say.

Lopez then approached an Asian man who had seen the incident and threatened him, but the passer-by pepper-sprayed him, police say. Lopez retrieved a broomstick and approached the man again, receiving a second dose of pepper-spray.

Police say Lopez then attacked a homeless Asian man on the sidewalk. A third Asian man tried to intervene and Lopez beat him with the broomstick. Both men suffered minor injuries.

Officers later found and arrested Lopez, the release says. While the attacks were unprovoked, Lopez did not use racial slurs or hate speech.

Police ask that anyone with information on the incidents, particularly the two Asian women who fled, contact the SFPD Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or text TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.

Threats and attacks — including hate crimes — against Asian Americans have been on the rise in the U.S. in the year since the pandemic began, and some people say the racially motivated incidents were fueled in part by former President Donald Trump and others calling the coronavirus the “China virus” and “Kung Flu.”

The incidents run across the country:

• An Asian restaurant in San Antonio had threatening messages written on its windows after the owner criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s lifting of the mask mandate.

• After being attacked on a San Francisco street, a 69-year-old Asian woman beat the attacker with a wooden stick.

• In the aftermath of eight people — including six Asians — being killed at spas in Atlanta, President Joe Biden said, “Whatever the motivation here, I know Asian-Americans are very concerned. Because as you know I have been speaking about the brutality against Asian-Americans for the last couple months, and I think it’s very, very troubling.”

Stop APPI Hate, a national coalition documenting and addressing anti-Asian hate and discrimination amid the COVID-19 pandemic, received 3,795 accounts of anti-Asian hate from 47 states and the District of Columbia between March 19, 2020, and Feb. 28, 2021.

This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 8:25 AM with the headline "String of assaults on Asians on San Francisco streets leads to arrest, police say."