Bay City News [BCN]. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
A new video released Wednesday by the San Francisco Ombudsman's Office shows a man being brutally beaten by a group of people in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood, moments before the no apparent motive attack on two Asian senior citizens.
Steven Jenkins, 39, is accused of wantonly assaulting Ngoc Pham, 83, and Xiao Zhen Xie, 75, on March 17 near Market and Seventh streets. Jenkins has since been charged with two counts each of assault, battery and elder abuse.
The assaults, which left Pham with facial fractures and Xie with black eyes, have gone viral on social media and caused outrage amid a spike in hate crimes against Asians across the country. Although investigators said they were looking into whether the attack was racially motivated, Jenkins has not been charged with any hate crimes.
"We speak of two deeply troubling assaults on Asian-American seniors in our community at a time when Asian-Americans locally and nationally are suffering from escalating violence and anti-Asian racism," Jenkins' attorney, Deputy Public Defender Eric McBurney, said in a statement. "However, this situation is far more complex than it appears. Based on the facts I have reviewed, I do not believe Mr. Jenkins' actions were racially motivated."
The new surveillance video shows several people at UN Plaza attacking Jenkins, hitting him dozens of times in the head over the course of a few minutes, just before Jenkins then attacked Xie and Pham.
"On that day, Mr. Jenkins himself was the victim of an attack for no apparent reason by four unknown assailants who struck him more than forty times immediately before he was seen striking Mr. Pham and Ms. Xiao. Due to the initial attack, Mr. Jenkins suffered multiple head injuries, and I believe he was in an impaired mental state±, McBurney said.
"What happened that day was not the norm for him. He has no prior convictions for physically hurting anyone. He has struggled all his life on the streets, largely ignored by society. Even when he is attacked and beaten more than 40 times in broad daylight in the busy UN square, not a single person comes to his aid," he said.
The assailants who attacked Jenkins have not been identified, McBurney said.
Jenkins remains in custody and is being held without bail, according to jail records.
