Asian Celebrities Offer $25,000 Reward For Info In Oakland Chinatown Attacks
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu offered a $25,000-reward Friday for information leading to the arrest of a suspect who attacked three bystanders in Chinatown over the weekend.
The two actors announced the offering on Instagram while sharing surveillance video of the attacker violently pushing a 91-year-old man to the ground.
"Despite the skyrocketing number of hate crimes against Asian Americans this past year, our pleas for help go unheard," Wu, the star of the show "Into The Badlands" and a Bay Area native, wrote. "@danieldaekim and I are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of this man and his accomplices. We must do more to help the literally thousands of Americans who have suffered at the hands of this absolutely senseless violence."
The offering comes after Oakland Police and the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce held a press conference calling for the public's help finding the attacker.
"This is something we must change and change it now," Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce president Carl Chan said Thursday.
The attack occurred in the 800 block of Harrison Street at 12:10 p.m. Sunday. Surveillance video shows the elderly man walking on the sidewalk before a tall, skinny man comes behind him and violently pushes him to the ground before swiftly walking away. Two more victims -- a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman -- were taken to the hospital. The three victims' conditions remained unknown Friday.
Chan said, since the attack, a normally bustling Chinatown ahead of Lunar New Year, has been eerily quiet as fear has taken over the community.
He said the Alameda County Sheriff's Office will step up patrols in the area during the holiday and that he has asked for Oakland police assistance as well.
Both Wu and Kim have used their celebrity status for good. Back in August of last year, Wu offered $15,000 for information in the attack of a 90-year-old Asian woman in Brooklyn. Kim, best known for his roles in television shows like "Hawaii Five-0" and "Lost," has railed against the racial disparities Asians face working in Hollywood. He raised $50,000 last year to honor prolific Chinese actor James Hong with a star on Hollywood's Walk Of Fame.
(Editor's Note: Correction: The 91-year-old victim was mistakenly identified as Vincent Chin in the story and taken from a comment in the social posting above by actor Daniel Wu. The Oakland victim has not been identified. Chin, a 27-year-old Chinese engineer, was killed in an attack in Detroit in the 1980s and his death was the subject of the Academy Award nominated documentary -- Who Killed Vincent Chin?. We apologize for the error. )
