A group of four juveniles in San Francisco ganged up on an elderly Asian American woman on Sunday, taking turns beating her up.
The teenagers approached the 70-year-old woman — identified as Mrs. Ren — at around 5 p.m. that day to ask her what time it was, KABC-TV reported.
In response to the question, Ren told the boys that it was “5 o’clock” and showed them her watch. They then began searching her body, discovering that she owned an Apple iPhone 7, the news station reported.
As soon as they spotted her device, they followed the woman into the elevator after she refused to hand it over to them.
Footage reviewed by the news station and provided to the San Francisco Police Department showed her being followed into the elevator.
Trending:
WARNING: The following video contains images that some viewers may find disturbing.
“They got really mad and pulled me down,” Ren told the news station through an interpreter.
Should the California government be more tough on crime?
Once she was on the floor, the boys began kicking her in the face.
“They used their fist to hit my head multiple times, and then they pulled me down and kept kicking me,” she said.
Ren then tried to hide in the hallway after being unable to shut the door. To her horror, the boys returned to begin taking turns attacking her.
“Yesterday was one of the first days for a long time she went out, and this is what happened,” Ren’s interpreter told KABC-TV.
“I never expected this to happen to us, even though we saw a lot of reporting from our station in particular you, Miss Lim.” Ren’s daughter Zeng told KABC-TV reporter Dion Lim.
The Sunday incident comes as crimes across California have been on the rise due to the soft-on-crime approaches of the state’s Democratic administration, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon and former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was recently recalled.
Like others, elderly women have been victims of California Democrats’ soft-on-crime approach.
In late May, a woman and a man tried to steal a wedding ring off an 80-year-old woman in Palo Alto, according to reporting from local outlet Palo Alto Online.
Although the thieves were not able to take the ring, the victim was left with two bruised fingers.
Though they’ve been traumatized by the Sunday incident, Ren and her daughter wanted to speak out about their experiences. “I want this story to come out, so people know, and so for other people to be aware to be safe,” Ren said.
