Olivia Munn says Asian woman, friend’s mom, hurt in shoving

NEW YORK — An Asian woman standing on a New York City street was violently shoved to the ground and police were searching for the suspect, with a spotlight being put on the case by actor Olivia Munn who said she was a friend of the woman’s daughter.

The New York Police Department said the 52-year-old woman was outside a bakery on Roosevelt Avenue in the Flushing section of Queens around 2 p.m. Tuesday when the suspect got into a verbal dispute with her and pushed her.

The woman hit her head and was taken to the hospital, police said, and the public was being asked for help in finding the suspect.

On Twitter, Munn said “My friend’s mom is a 5’3” 50+ Chinese woman and she was attacked” and posted images of the person she said was the suspect.

Munn said her friend’s mom needed 10 stitches in her head.

The woman’s daughter, Maggie Kayla Cheng, in a post on Facebook, said her mom was pushed “with such force that she hit her head on the concrete and passed out on the floor.”

Munn has been speaking out about an increase in crimes against Asian Americans across the country during the pandemic. Last week, she said in an Instagram post that she’s found herself “at a loss for words at the rise of Anti-Asian hate crimes,” which “have spiked since Covid and continue to increase.”

“Hate crimes against Asians Americans have become so bad that in just the past week a 91-year-old Asian American was attacked from behind as he walked down the street in Oakland, an 84-year-old Thai American was murdered in San Francisco, a 64-year-old Vietnamese American woman was assaulted in San Jose and a Filipino American man was slashed in the face in Manhattan,” Munn said in the post.

The Associated Press