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The New York Police Department (NYPD) is asking for the public's assistance in locating two individuals "wanted for an assault" of an Asian man at the Fulton Street subway station on May 27 that was caught on camera and went viral over the weekend.
"It was reported to police that on Friday, May 27, 2022 at approximately 1530 hours, on the "A/C" train platform of the Fulton Street subway station, a 42-year-old male victim was punched multiple times about the body by two unidentified males," NYPD told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
The 35-year-old man who filmed the attack that has since garnered thousands of reactions on social media, however, is alleging that a group beat the man in an act of vigilante justice after he apparently tried to sexually assault a woman on a train, according to a report.
The amateur cameraman, who spoke to The New York Post on the condition of anonymity, said he saw the Asian man being detained by another man on the subway platform when he was walking home from work and addressed the person holding him from behind.
"I said, ‘What are you doing? Why are you holding that guy?’" the cameraman told the Post.
WARNING: VIDEO IS GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING
The man responded saying the detained Asian man had just attempted to sexually assault a woman on a subway car and instructed the cameraman to "call the cops."
NYPD ‘LOOKING INTO’ ASSAULT AGAINST ASIAN MAN AT SUBWAY STATION CAPTURED ON VIDEO
The man being detained allegedly said, "'Yeah, so what? Do you have it on camera?'" according to the cameraman.
After five minutes passed, "the guy holding the Asian gentleman said, ‘Where are the cops? Where are the cops?" the videographer told the outlet. "So I called the cops a second time," he recalled.
Videos circulating on social media appear to show a group of men beating an Asian man at the Fulton Street subway station. (Ed Rhodes/Loop Images/Universal Images Group)
Police did not arrive for about 20 minutes, the cameraman said, during which point the Asian man allegedly tried to get away, and a woman nearby offered to walk upstairs to get the crops when they arrived. While the video circulating online does not show the Asian man trying to get away, the videographer insisted to the Post that he was trying to escape "the entire time."
WOMAN ASSAULTED ON NYC SUBWAY AS BYSTANDERS DO NOTHING
Authorities are attempting to gather details about the incident, but because the assault "victim has not come forward," police have very "limited" information about the attack.
The Twitter account Asian Crime Report, which tracks alleged hate crime incidents against Asian people, shared the video on Sunday, which appears to show two men slapping and punching the Asian man while he is held up by the first man as bystanders cheer the attack.
The man holding the Asian man allegedly told the attacks to "chill" while waiting for police to arrive, the cameraman told the Post.
The video sparked outrage amid reports of skyrocketing violence against Asian individuals in New York City and elsewhere. Reports of anti-Asian attacks in NYC rose by a staggering 343% last year — from 30 in 2020 to 133 in 2021, according to the NYPD's total year-end hate crime statics first obtained by Fox News Digital.
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NYPD said on Monday that it has not received any information "to corroborate that information at this point" when asked whether it also received reports of a sexual assault related to the video.
"Detectives alerted to video clips posted to social media on Sunday, showing a man being assaulted, are tracing the incident backwards from that moment on a Fulton train platform in their ongoing work to identify those involved, gather evidence, and find and interview all witnesses," NYPD told the Post in a statement.
Anyone with information about the attack is asked to contact NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
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