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Suspect Arrested After Olivia Munn Enlists Fans To Help Seek Justice Following Attack On Her Friend’s Asian Mom
“F--- this guy,” Olivia Munn tweeted after a man was arrested in connection with a brutal attack. “The internet is undefeated. Thank you thank you thank you.”
Actor Olivia Munn was able to wield the power of social media to find justice after her friend’s mother was attacked this week in New York.
In a now-deleted post, Munn, who is of Asian descent, took to Twitter on Wednesday to share that her friend’s mom, “a 5’3” 50+ Chinese woman,” was attacked in Queens by a then-unidentified assailant. The New York Police Department’s 109th precinct tweeted that a suspect grabbed a woman and threw her to the ground on Tuesday following a “verbal dispute" at a bakery. The incident caused “injury to her head,” police noted.
Munn wrote on her social media account that the woman required 10 stitches in her head.
The actor pleaded with her followers to look closely at video footage of the assault to see if they recognized the suspect. Her tweets were then shared over a thousand times. Footage from the incident appears to show a man throwing a box at the victim before shoving her. An ABC7 reporter wrote that a witness claimed the assailant used slurs as he attacked the woman.
Munn, known for her Hollywood film roles in “Ocean’s Eight” and “X Men: Apocalypse,” had posted a statement last week about the ongoing hate crimes against Asian Americans on her Instagram, noting she was finding herself "at a loss for words at the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes."
Earlier this month, actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in an attack on a 91-year-old Asian American man in California.
“The number of hate crimes against Asian Americans continues to skyrocket, despite our repeated pleas for help. The crimes are too often ignored and even excused,” Kim wrote on Instagram.
By Thursday, a suspect was arrested for the Queens attack.
“Yesterday, this incident went viral on social media & the community came through in response, sending a lot of good information to our @NYPDTips hotline,” police tweeted.
The suspect, identified as 47-year-old Patrick Mateo, was charged with assault with intent to cause physical injury and harassment, ABC7 New York reported. It’s not clear if he has a lawyer. The incident is not being investigated as a hate crime at this point.
“F--- this guy,” Munn tweeted, following the announcement. “The internet is undefeated. Thank you thank you thank you."
