Officials in Oakland, California announced Monday that they were charging a suspect in connection with a series of violent attacks against elderly Asian Americans, one of which was caught on video.

In a press conference announcing the arrest on Monday, officials in Oakland said they would launch a new task force to investigate similar attacks in the future and warned that racist attacks would not be tolerated in the community.

“Today, we're sending a message to those that commit crime in this city that we will pursue you and we will arrest you and it's not acceptable for things like this to happen in our community," Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstron said.

The press conference in Oakland comes just over a week after three elderly Asian Americans — a 91-year-old man, a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman — were all shoved to the ground on Jan. 31.

The incident involving the 91-year-old man was captured on video, and all three victims suffered injuries.

The suspect, identified by officials as Yahya Muslim, was arrested on unrelated charges on Feb. 1, District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said Monday.

"We are filing charges against a suspect identified as Yahya Muslim. We have charged him with three counts of assault that involve three separate victims," O'Malley said.

The announcement comes after two prominent Asian-American actors, Daniel Wu and Daniel Dae Kim, each pledged a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in connection with the alleged assaults.

"Racist rhetoric from the pandemic have targeted us as being the reason for coronavirus. And so Asians across-the-board have been targeted, being pushed, attacked, spat on,” Wu said at the press conference Monday. “Outside of San Francisco, in Los Angeles and in New York, these incidents are happening all over the country."

Those three alleged assaults took place just three days after an 84-year-old Thai man was abruptly attacked in nearby San Francisco. Vicha Ratanapakdee later died of his injuries, and a 19-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged with murder and elder abuse.

CNN reports that O’Malley announced Monday that her office was creating a special task force that will focus on crimes committed against elderly Asian-Americans.

"The rapid increase in criminal acts targeted against members of the Asian community, particularly Chinese Americans, who live and work in Alameda County is intolerable," O’Malley said.

At Monday's White House press briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that while she isn't sure if President Joe Biden has seen the videos of the alleged assaults, he's aware that racism against Asian-Americans is on the rise. Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office pledging to fight racism against Asian-Americans during his term.

CNN —

A coalition tracking reports of racism and discrimination against Asian Americans says it has received at least 3,795 firsthand complaints since last year.

Stop AAPI Hate began tracking violence and harassment against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on March 19 last year.

From then through the end of 2020, Stop AAPI Hate received a total of 3,292 complaints from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to a Stop AAPI Hate news release. The coalition, which had previously reported a lower number of complaints for 2020, said some incidents that took place in 2020 were not reported until earlier this year.

There were at least 503 anti-Asian hate incidents reported between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 according to the group's latest report, released Tuesday.

While the incidents reported through their website likely only represent a portion of the number of hate incidents in the United States, the coalition says those numbers show that anti-Asian sentiment is still prevalent.

"Hate incidents are not abating. We cannot let anti-Asian American hate be a legacy of COVID-19 or the last presidential administration, but that's exactly what will happen unless we demand concrete action," Russell Jeung, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, said in a statement.

The majority of the incidents — about 68%— were cases of verbal harassment, while shunning or avoidance made up about 20.5%. About 11% of the incidents involved physical assaults, according to Stop AAPI Hate.

More than a third of the incidents — 35.4% — took place in businesses, 25.3% were in public streets and 9.8% in public parks. Nearly 11% of the reports involved online incidents, according to the organization.

Among those saying they've experience hate, 42.2% identify as Chinese, followed by 14.8% who said they're Korean. Vietnamese and Filipinos make 8.5% and 7.9% of those reporting the incidents, respectively.

Stop AAPI Hate said it doesn't independently verify any of the reports it receives, but that its total number of incidents only includes those reports that came with a description.

"We just report what we receive. We do tend to believe the impacted person, especially as so many are willing to go on record and to speak publicly about what happened to them," said Ujala Sehgal, a spokeswoman for Stop AAPI Hate.

In recent months, advocates, actors and officials have come together to denounce violence following a string of attacks in California and New York that left several people severely injured and some dead.

Last week, President Joe Biden addressed the nation on the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 shutdown. During his speech, he condemned the hate and discrimination that Asian Americans have faced.

"Too often, we have turned against one another," Biden said. "A mask, the easiest thing to do to save lives, sometimes, it divides us, states pitted against one another, instead of working with each other, vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans, who have been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated."

"At this very moment, so many of them, our fellow Americans, they're on the front lines of this pandemic trying to save lives, and still, still they're forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America. It's wrong. It's un-American. And it must stop," he added.

Hours before Biden's speech, two Democratic lawmakers reintroduced legislation in the House and the Senate calling for the expedited review of hate crimes related to the pandemic.

Rep. Grace Meng of New York, who sponsored the bill in the House, said she hopes the legislation tackles the "disgusting pattern of hate" that Asian Americans are facing since the start of the pandemic.

There are more than 2.5 million Chinese immigrants in America. Many make the journey to the U.S. and share a similar experience to Yi Andy Chen’s father.

“He got punched. He got locked up in different jails in different countries from South Asia to Mexico, and he didn’t even know where he was supposed to go the next minute,” said Yi.

In the early 90s, it took his father two years, walking across mountains and hitching rides on boats, to get from Fujian Province, China to New York City. Throughout the entire journey, Yi and his family had no communication with Yi’s father.

“At one point, we didn’t even know if he was alive,” Yi said.

His father made the dangerous journey out of desperation.

“At that time in China, we were not allowed to have two boys at home, and I was the second son,” Yi explained.

The second son had to be hidden for fear of being taken away by the government at the time. Yi’s father didn’t want to live with that fear forever, and he wanted the chance at giving his children more opportunities in the land of opportunity: America.

“I grew up in China until 14 years old,” said Hailing Chen.

Hailing is of no familial relation to Yi, but their families do come from the same province in China. Chen's father made a similar journey from Fujian to the U.S. as Yi’s father, except Chen’s father, who chose to never speak about that part of his immigrant story

“I know it was tough,” said Hailing. “And I learned some stories that he worked in the restaurants and lived in the basement, and those kinds of stories really break my heart.”

Like most first-generation immigrants, both Chen’s fathers worked low-wage jobs for long hours, often seven-day work weeks and 12 to 16-hour days in restaurants. They lived extremely modestly, often boarded with a dozen other people in a small New York City one-bedroom apartment in order to save up for their families to legally come to the U.S. and to give their next generation a better chance in life.

“You know, he gave me a chance to go to college,” Chen said of his father.

Chen and Yi both went to college. Yi now lives the quintessential American dream, owning a small business in Queens. Chen studied accounting but found his passion was actually fighting for immigrant rights and has since become an advocate. After turning to Uber for work during the Great Recession, Chen helped immigrant drivers fight for union rights and protection.

“We were able to successfully pass a number of bills that are on the state and city level to provide job protection, to provide minimum pay,” said Chen.

This year, Chen decided to further stand up for his community by running for office in the biggest city in the country. He is the first immigrant from the Fujian Province to ever do so. Yi became the second, and now, there is a third candidate. They are running in different districts, which means they all have a chance of winning their races and NYC could see all three potentially as the first-ever Fujian council members.

"Once we announced our candidacy for city council this year, all the community leaders, they said, 'We have been waiting for this moment for far too long. For almost 100 years,’” Yi recalled.

Their candidacies are a potential moment for representation in America that each of them and their community hopes lead to better a better understanding and acceptance of their people and all immigrants.

“We come here because not only do we think we can get something from this country, but also we think we can contribute,” said Chen. “Immigrants have always demonstrated a bonus and bravery to this country.”