An elderly Asian woman who was attacked in November by a man who allegedly hit her in the head repeatedly with a rock has passed away, her family said.
CNN reported that GuiYing Ma, 61, was sweeping a sidewalk in Queens “when a man allegedly struck her in the head repeatedly with a large rock, injuring her face and head, police said at the time.” While the media spent much of the past year trying to insist that white people were behind the increase in Asian-American hate crimes, most high profile examples included a non-white defendant, which is the case in the death of Ma.
One day after she was attacked, the New York Police Department arrested Elisaul Perez, 33, and charged him with three felonies, “including a charge of assault with intent to disfigure and dismember and a charge of assault with intent to seriously injure someone with a weapon. He also faces a charge of criminal possession of a weapon,” CNN reported.
Yihung Hsieh, who owned the property in Jackson Heights where Ma was sweeping when she was attacked, created a GoFundMe page afterward to raise money for Ma’s medical expenses. Hsieh told CNN that Ma needed a surgery to relieve pressure on the brain due to the attack.
Hsieh published a statement from Ma’s family on the GoFundMe page announcing her death:
The family of GuiYing Ma is heartbroken to announce that 62-year-old Queens resident GuiYing Ma died at 9:29 p.m. on February 22, 2022 as a result of “Complications of Blunt Impact Injury of Head.” Mrs. Ma was sweeping the sidewalk when she was violently attacked with a rock in the morning of Friday, November 26, 2021 by a man who was sleeping on the sidewalk. The defendant who was arrested and indicted in this attack had multiple prior arrests, a long criminal record, and was known to be a menace to the community.
The attack permanently damaged the right side of Mrs. Ma’s brain. But the love between Mrs. Ma and her husband Mr. Zhanxin Gao remained. Despite being connected to a ventilator and a feeding tube, Mrs. Ma responded to Mr. Gao by moving her eyes and tearing up when Mr. Gao would speak to her at the hospital. In early February 2022 and just over 10 weeks after the attack, Mrs. Ma awoke from her coma, and was able to raise her hand in response to Mr. Gao even though she could not speak still.
The GoFundMe page notes that Ma had moved to New York from Liaoning, China, just four years before the attack. It also notes that she was the “fourth Asian American in New York City to die in the last two months as a result of violence against the AAPI community.”
Ma’s family thanked the NYPD and Queens County District Attorney’s Office “for seeking justice for Mrs. Ma and providing social worker assistance” and called for law enforcement to better protect the community.