NEW YORK(Washington Insider Magazine) – Prosecutors say a 25-year-old man was booked with murder after allegedly following a lady to her Manhattan Apartment and stabbing her numerous times with a knife on Sunday.
According to a complaint registered by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, surveillance video from the main gate of the Chrystie Street residence in Manhattan’s Chinatown area shows Christina Yuna Lee, 35, approaching the building just around 4:20 a.m. and a person pushing the gate open as it closed down behind her and continuing to follow her inside.
According to the video footage provided in the complaint, the guy, identified by detectives as Assamad Nash, reportedly followed Lee up to the 6th story of the walk-up apartment while staying around a flight of stairs below her.
According to the charge, when Lee arrived at her place and entered, the guy raced to her door and forced his way inside. Officers responded to a 911 call of a conflict after somebody in the residential building overheard a female voice shouting for help suddenly coming from the location of Lee’s unit, CNN reported.
When officers arrived at 4:25 a.m., they heard a lady screaming for aid from within the apartment, according to the complaint, but they were unable to enter. It’s unclear why cops weren’t able to enter the flat right away.
The NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit was dispatched to the area, and police were able to gain entry about 5:40 a.m., according to prosecutors. According to bodycam footage presented in the complaint, police discovered Lee nude from the waist up on the toilet floor with much more than Forty knife wounds once inside the residence.
Prosecutors claim body camera footage showed Nash hiding beneath the bed with a knife wound to his chest and slashes on his wrists and torso after officers made an entrance. According to the findings from the district attorney’s office, a yellow-handled knife was discovered beneath a dresser in the very same room.
According to court filings, Nash is charged with one case of 1st-degree murder, one count of 1st-degree burglary, and 1 charge of sexually motivated burglary.
He’s due to appear before a judge on Friday, Manhattan district attorney spokesperson Naomi Puzzello said. Prosecutors said they’ll ask for him to be kept without bail.
Nash was out on conditional probation in three earlier incidents, according to prosecutors, along with at least one in which he reportedly assaulted a stranger on the train.
It’s unclear as to if Lee’s racial background played any part in the attack, or if the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating, but advocates say the murder of an Asian woman in Chinatown has reignited concerns in New York and across the nation, where Asians have been subjected to an uptick in anti-Asian violence in recent times.
