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Who is Gregory Jacques? NY man, 33, tased after hurling racial slur and punching Asian 7-Eleven staff in face

Several locals called 911 as Gregory Jacques was assaulting the victim while yelling racially charged expletives towards him

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: An Asian man was violently attacked by a Black man named Gregory Jacques at a store in Midtown, New York City. According to the police, this was a racially motivated attack that took place on Tuesday night. The police were apprised of the tragic incident after several locals called 911 saying a man was assaulting a 7-Eleven employee on 39th Street and Eighth Avenue. 

Police said the officers had to use a taser on the suspect who allegedly punched the store employee, before arresting him. The victim was not harmed during this process. This is yet another attack on a person of Asian descent in the United States in recent times. Following the terrifying shootings in Atlanta on March 16 that killed eight people, local organizers have held rallies calling for an end to the violence and harassment of the community but this incident brings to the fore a requirement for stringent actions to curb the situation. 

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Who is Gregory Jacques?

The assault is being investigated by the New York Police Department (NYPD) Hate Crimes Task Force. Gregory Jacques, a 33-year-old Black man, is the suspect in this incident and he was taken to Jefferson University Hospital for evaluation after being tased twice before being taken into custody. 

Gregory is being charged with attempted assault, reckless endangerment, and assault. According to the police, Jacques punched the worker and yelled, "You chinese motherf***er" at him and ran off. Jacques got agitated after being confronted by the employee for trying to steal some merchandise. Cops say that the incident looks like a hate crime but Gregory was not immediately slapped with a hate crime charge. 

Yet another Asian-American hate crime

The NYPD received a total of 34 hate crime reports targeting Asians. The city and the rest of the country is battling with a massive surge in anti-Asian incidents. Last weekend, the NY City police asked help from the public to find a man who yelled anti-Asian slurs at a 44-year-old woman and her three children while spitting at her and kicking her cellphone off a subway train. Police are calling this a hate crime. 

The woman was on a southbound No 5 train headed to Times Square with her three children at about 2.30 pm last Tuesday when the man yelled anti-Asian slurs at them, spit twice in her direction and knocked her cellphone out of her hand, police said. The man then kicked the phone out the train's back door and onto the tracks before fleeing on West 41st Street, authorities said. The woman was taken to a hospital in stable condition for observation, officers said. In another incident, a 65-year-old Filipina American woman was assaulted while she was on her way to church.