New surveillance footage shows suspended building doormen came to the aide of Filipina woman, 65, who was brutally beaten on NYC street - but only after her attacker fled
New surveillance footage of a brutal attack on a Filipina woman in Manhattan shows two building security guards coming to her aide once the attack was over.
Two of the building staff, who appeared to be security guards, were suspended from work for doing nothing to help Vilma Kari as she was attacked, it emerged on Tuesday.
Previously released footage shows one of the men closing the door while the alleged attacker, Brandon Elliot, 38, kicked and stomped on the 56-year-old's and face at least three times.
The new footage shows the men going to Kari's aide once the attack was over.
Her daughter, Elizabeth Kari, wrote in a statement on Go Fund Me that her mother was 'safe and in good spirits'.
'My mom is humbled by the outpouring of messages and support from not only our friends and family, but from the kind souls all over the world,' she wrote.
'Although the healing process will not be easy, she has always been a resilient role model for me. We are hopeful that in time she will make a full recovery.'
She added that while security footage of the brutal attack that went viral was 'the most difficult thing to watch', and 'there were many times that I wish someone would have stepped in'.
She also thanked a witness across the street who filmed the incident from a different angle and who yelled and screamed at her mother's attacker to get his attention.
'That is where the video cuts off as the attacker crossed the street to him,' she wrote.
The alleged attacker, Elliot, appeared in court on Wednesday after being charged with three counts - two of assault in the second degree, as a hate crime, and a third count of attempted assault in the first degree, as a hate crime.
He was was represented in court on Wednesday by two public defenders who did not contest his detention - which was automatic, given that he was on a lifetime parole for murdering his mother.
Vilma Kari, 65, has been identified by police as the woman who was brutally attacked by a man in Midtown Manhattan while she was on her way to church. Her daughter says she is 'safe and in good spirits'
NYPD released surveillance camera footage of the man suspected of attacking an Asian American woman near Times Square on Monday
Surveillance footage from the building where security guards watched a brutal attack on Vilma Kari showed them closing the door during the beating
Another angle from the surveillance footage shows the men went outside to help the Kari after the attack
New York's police chief said earlier on Wednesday that it was disturbing that Elliot was released from prison in 2019 and ended up in a homeless shelter, and called for a reassessment of how former convicts were rehabilitated.
Elliot is charged with three counts - two of assault in the second degree, as a hate crime, and a third count of attempted assault in the first degree, as a hate crime.
He will next appear in court on April 5.
If he is convicted of hate crimes, he faces 25 years in prison, plus further penalties for violating his parole.
Elliot murdered his mother in the Bronx in 2002, in front of his five-year-old sister, and was sentenced to 25 years to life. He was released from prison on lifetime parole in 2019.
Dermot Shea, NYPD Commissioner, said Elliot's behavior after he was released from prison raised serious questions about failures in the social services.
'For the life of me, I don't understand why we are releasing or pushing people out of prison - not to give them second chances, but to put them into homeless facilities or shelters, or in this case a hotel - and expect good outcomes,' said Shea at a news conference on Wednesday.
'We need real opportunities. We need real safety nets.'
Elliot was identified by police as the man seen on surveillance video kicking and stomping the woman near Times Square on Monday.
They said Elliot was living at a hotel that serves as a homeless shelter a few blocks from the scene of the attack.
On Wednesday sources told DailyMail.com that Elliot denied carrying out the attack, but 'he puts himself in the area at the time of the incident.'
He told officers he was going to a store in that area at the time.
Police executed a search warrant in his room and recovered some of the clothing seen on the suspect during the attack, including his pants and a red scarf he had tucked inside a sweater he was wearing.
Elliot told officers he takes medication for an unspecified condition, and said he was taking his medication at the time of the attack.
'He was totally lucid under questioning,' the source said.
Elliot told officers that his family cut him off after he killed his mother.
'He said he has no family ties. He has been ostracized by the rest of the family,' the source said.
There is no indication Elliot knew the victim, the source told DailyMail.com.
'She was going to church. The victim says she heard him saying, 'What are you doing here?' Then he set upon her. He totally 'unprovoked attacked' her.'
Elliot was taken into custody at the hotel around midnight. Tips from the public led to his apprehension, police said.
The man has been identified as Brandon Elliott, 38, who murdered his mother in 2002
The victim was identified by a law enforcement official as 65-year-old Vilma Kari.
Kari's daughter told The New York Times that she emigrated from the Philippines several decades ago.
In a statement on Go Fund Me,
The parole board had previously twice denied Elliot's release.
His record also included an arrest for robbery in 2000.
'He was released on parole,' said Shea.
'Anyone who is given a second chance deserves a second chance.'
But he said he saw recidivism 'far too often'.
He said it was 'misguided' to simply 'push people out and think we are helping them'.
Dermot Shea, NYPD Commissioner, said it was 'misguided' to release convicts with no support
NYPD Officer Rodney Hierro keeps an eye in Flushing, a largely Asian American neighborhood
The NYPD offered a $2,500 reward for information that would lead to an arrest
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea called Monday's attack 'disgusting'
The video - from a previously unseen angle - shows Kari, 65, pushed to floor and kicked in the head by Elliot during the vicious daylight attack
Kari, who was repeatedly kicked and stomped, suffered serious injuries including a fractured pelvis, the law enforcement official said.
She was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday, a hospital spokesperson said.
Kari has been speaking to police, Shea said.
Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez said the victim is Filipina American.
The country's foreign secretary, Teodoro Locsin Jr., condemned the attack, writing on Twitter: 'This is gravely noted and will influence Philippine foreign policy.'
He didn't elaborate how.
NYPD have increased their patrols in Asian American neighborhoods of the city
The Philippines and United States are longtime treaty allies, but Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte is a vocal critic of U.S. security policies who has moved to terminate a key agreement that allows largescale military exercises with U.S. forces in the Philippines.
'I might as well say it, so no one on the other side can say, 'We didn't know you took racial brutality against Filipinos at all seriously.' We do,' Locsin said.
Kari was walking to church in midtown Manhattan when police said Elliot kicked her in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, stomped on her face, shouted anti-Asian slurs and told her: 'You don't belong here'.
He then casually walked away as onlookers watched.
Shea called it a 'completely unprovoked violent attack on an innocent, defenseless woman.'
Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney, said: 'This brave woman belongs here. Asian American New Yorkers belong here. Everyone belongs here.'
Monday's attack, among the latest in a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, drew widespread condemnation and concerns about the failure of bystanders to intervene.
NYPD Officer Joanna Derkacz on patrol in Flushing, Queens on Tuesday
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the attack 'absolutely disgusting and outrageous' and said it was 'absolutely unacceptable' that witnesses didn't help the woman.
Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang on Tuesday said he was furious that nobody tried to stop the assault.
'Like so many other people, I woke up to a horrifying video of an Asian woman being horribly beaten for no other reason than her race,' said Yang, who is currently considered the favorite to succeed de Blasio.
'An elderly Asian woman walking the streets of Hell's Kitchen could easily have been my mother, because that's where we live.
'And so when I saw this video, that is who I thought of.'
Yang's comments were reported by the New York Post.
The former candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president is vying to be the first-ever mayor of Asian descent to take over City Hall.
The attack happened just weeks after a mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent, and just a few days after a 65-year-old Asian American woman in the same midtown Manhattan neighborhood was threatened and heckled with anti-Asian slurs.
The surge in violence has been linked in part to misplaced blame for the coronavirus pandemic and former President Donald Trump's use of terms like 'Chinese virus.'
Monday's attack happened in the late morning in front of a luxury apartment building in Hell's Kitchen, a predominantly white neighborhood west of Times Square.
Two workers inside the building who appeared to be security guards were seen on video witnessing the attack but failing to come to the woman's aid.
One of them was seen closing the building door as the woman was on the ground.
The building's management company said they were suspended pending an investigation.
The workers' union said they called for help immediately.
Residents of the building defended the workers Wednesday in a letter to the management company and the media.
They contend that a video clip focusing on the suspect and the assault was 'unfortunately cut to inadvertently exclude the compassionate action' taken by the staff, which they said included giving the victim aid and alerting medics.
Detective Michael Rodriguez said there were no 911 calls.
He said patrol officers driving by came upon the victim after she was assaulted.
This year in New York City, there have been 33 hate crimes with an Asian victim as of Sunday, police said.
There were 11 such attacks by the same time last year.
Four have been charged this year so far, with nine charged last year.
The NYPD last week said it was increasing outreach and patrols in predominantly Asian communities, including the use of undercover officers to prevent and disrupt attacks.
'This is crucial to the equation,' de Blasio said of the new policing efforts.
'It's a very few people but we need to find each and every one of them and stop this.'
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