Who is Yung Kim? Korean shopkeeper in Texas suffers broken nose as group of women punches her, hurls racial slurs
HOUSTON, TEXAS: An assault on a Korean shopkeeper who owned Uptown Beauty Supply in Houston has resulted in the police department investigating the same as a possible hate crime. A customer punched 59-year-old Yung Kim multiple times, which broke her nose. The assaulters reportedly even attempted to run the other family members over with a car while also attempting to flee the scene.
According to Houston Chronicle, the court records confirmed that two women have been charged. However, hate crime charges are yet to be filed. One of the victims claimed that racial slurs were used by the attackers.
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How were Yung Kim and Sungjun Lee attacked?
Sungjun Lee recalled working at his family beauty supply store in north Houston on Wednesday, March 17 when five women walked into the store and started messing up the wigs, knocking them to the floor. The victim who was punched, Yung Kim, is Lee's mother. According to Lee, his mother told the women, "don’t worry about it, I’ll fix it" after they knocked the wig over. Lee also claimed that the group yelled obscenities at them and told them that they should not be selling wigs to Black people and accused the store owners of stealing their money.
The women were then asked to leave but they returned seconds later and messed up more displays. One of the women punched Kim many times, recalled her son Lee. His face was also scratched by one of them when his brother intervened in the assault. The women then attempted to flee and also tried running over other family members. Lee said that they do not feel safe in their store anymore because they believe the attack to be racially motivated. “We didn’t do anything,” he said and added, “I’m pretty sure they came to the store with a purpose.”
Where are the accused now?
Keaundra Young, 24, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as she used her car to hurt store owners. According to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, she was released from jail on $40,000 bail and will appear in court in June.
The court records show Daquiesha Rachel Williams, 22, was charged with assault for striking one of the family members with her hand. She has been released after paying bond. It was on Wednesday, March 24 afternoon that the officials decided to investigate this as hate crime. The agency’s public information officer, Jodi Silva, said that this decision was made because of the atmosphere of concern surrounding a rise in anti-Asian American violence.
According to Lee, the assault was racially motivated. He also alleged that the attackers targeted his mother as she is older, small in stature and Asian. “Whenever the one girl beat up my mom, she said ‘You little young Asian girl',” Lee recalled hearing. “They say a lot of racial words like, ‘F**king Asians, f***king b***h Asians’ to my mom and to us.” He added, “We never thought this (would) happen to us,” and said, "We’re not in a dangerous field, but we don’t feel safe anymore. It’s really sad."
Yung Kim's family worked in the beauty industry for more than two decades before starting their store two years ago. Lee also said that this attacked surprised his family because they had had a good relationship with their customers so far. He also explained how many of their clientele had reached out to check on them and confirmed that most of their customers and their employees were Black. Following the attack, the family members are being treated at a hospital where it was revealed that Yung Kim would need surgery.
Daquiesha Rachel Williams' statement
In the meantime, following the release, one of the accused who was charged, Daquiesha Rachel Williams went live on Facebook in an attempt to clear her name and said that the entire incident began because the group of women who had entered the shop had felt racially profiled. She said that the store owner ended up following them around in the store and that led to further conflict.