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Brandon Elliot crimes: Man, 38, who attacked Asian woman, 65, murdered his mother in front of 5-year-old sister

Elliot murdered his mother in front of his five-year-old sister in the Bronx in 2002

Brandon Elliot, the 38-year-old New York man who was arrested on March 31 for assaulting an elderly Asian-American woman, has been found to have murdered his own mother in 2002, according to reports. Elliot served his sentence in prison till 2019 after which he was released on lifetime parole. Now it appears that he has launched a 'totally unprovoked attack' on an innocent elderly Filipina woman in a suspected hate crime. 

New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea criticized the social services for Elliot's behavior post his prison release. At a news conference on Wednesday, Shea said, "For the life of me, I don't understand why we are releasing or pushing people out of prison - not to give them second chances, but to put them into homeless facilities or shelters, or in this case a hotel - and expect good outcomes." 

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Who is Brandon Elliot? New York man who kicked elderly Asian-American woman arrested, charged with hate crime

NYC man kicks and punches Asian-American woman, 65, yells 'you don't belong here' as 2 security guards watch

What are the crimes of Brandon Elliot?

For the attack on 65-year-old Asian-American woman Vilma Kari, Brandon Elliot has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault as a hate crime, and another count of attempted first-degree assault, as a hate crime. If convicted, the crimes can land him in prison for 25 years, with additional penalties for parole violation, reports DailyMail. 

Though the NYPD commissioner declined to divulge details about Elliot's past criminal records, it was revealed that in 2000, he was arrested for a robbery. 

In 2002, when he was around 19, Elliot murdered his own mother in front of his five-year-old sister in the Bronx. He was sentenced to prison for 25 years to life for the crime. However, he was released on lifetime parole in 2019, after being denied twice before by the parole board. 

After the murder of his mother, Elliot's family cut him off, so he had no family to return to after his release. He ended up in a homeless shelter in Manhattan. His shelter was near to the location where he assaulted the elderly woman. 

Vilma Kari was heading to church in midtown Manhattan when Elliot suddenly turned on her in the street, asking her, "What are you doing here?" He then launched a completely unprovoked attack on her when he kicked her in the stomach, knocked her to the ground and stomped on her face, all the while shouting anti-Asian racial slurs and saying, "F**k you, you don't belong here." Following the assault, he even casually walked away from the scene. 

The victim's daughter's boyfriend, Luca, said he locked eyes with her as she tried to avoid him. "She said he was walking towards her and he locked eyes with her,” he explained. "She tried to avoid him, like how people do when you walk in New York City, but he came right for her. After the first hit, she wasn’t even there," he added. The video footage shows that he kicked her to the ground and then proceeded to stomp on her several times.

Kari suffered severe injuries including a fractured pelvis and facial bruises due to the repeated kicking, stomping and inhuman attack on her. 

During his interrogation after the arrest, Elliot informed the cops that he took medication regularly for an unspecified condition

What did the NYPD commissioner say?

"'Anyone who is given a second chance deserves a second chance," NYPD commissioner Shea said while speaking about Elliot's parole release. He added that he witnessed recidivism among convicts 'far too often' and that it was a misguided notion to 'push people out and think we are helping them'. 

"We need real opportunities, we need real safety nets, we need to work with nonprofits and hold them accountable and replicate the ones that are successful. But just pushing people out, and to think that we're doing them a good deed, I think is misguided," Shea reportedly said, according to NPR.