Family In Fear After GuiYing Ma Is Bashed In The Head With A Rock, Allegedly By Repeat Offender: 'I'm Not Satisfied About The Justice System'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A family is fear after a woman was bashed in the head with a rock.
The victim, 62-year-old GuiYing Ma was attacked Friday morning in the North Corona section of Queens.
She is still recovering in the hospital, and her attacker is set to appear in court Tuesday.
The suspect has a long criminal record, dating back to 2009.
As CBS2's Lisa Rozner reports, the family is nervous he'll be back on the streets once again.
Ma's husband is losing hope she will wake up after more than four days in a coma.
Speaking through a translator, Zhanzin Gao told Rozner "My sky has fallen... it's very difficult for me."
On the morning after Thanksgiving around 8 a.m., police say Ma was sweeping her landlord and family friend's property as a favor. It's behind a scaffolding on 38th Avenue.
Police say that's when 33-year-old Elisaul Perez started a verbal dispute and threw a rock at her.
"I feel guilty because she's helping me," said landlord Yihung Hsieh.
Police say surveillance video shows even after she fell to the ground, Perez threw the rock at her again.
Nearby residents say police have been called about Perez who sleeps in the street.
"I'm not satisfied about the justice system," Hsieh said.
Records show Perez, who also goes by Yose Claro, has 14 prior arrests dating back to 2009. In the last year across Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, several have been for public lewdness, drug possession and larceny.
Back in September, he allegedly struck another Asian woman in the back of the head with a piece of wood in Queens. He was charged with third degree assault, a misdemeanor, which means a judge could not hold him on bail, and he was released.
This is the first offence that could potentially keep Perez in jail. His attorney at the Queens defenders to comment on this or any other cases.
For the attack on Ma, he's facing first degree assault, a felony, which a grand jury is set to decide whether to indict him on Wednesday.
Jennifer Wu, a partner at law firm Paul Weiss, is helping the family pro-bono, along with her colleague and former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
"Where the people who are grandmothers, who are sort of what we hold up in the Asian community to be people we look up to, are being attacked, that's really an attack on the entire community and our entire culture," Wu said.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating.
A GoFundMe for Ma's family has raised more than $100,000.
Community activists have been holding a silent stand-in everyday at Elmhurst hospital to show support for her family.