The Royal Thai Consulate-General in Los Angeles has warned Thai people in California to be on their guard following the horrifying killing of an 84-year-old man in the Anza Vista neighbourhood of San Francisco.
The Thai man, named by a local TV station as Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, was among three elderly Asian people to be subjected to brutal attacks, according to Tanee Sangrat, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The attack took place at 8.30am last Thursday on a pavement in front of his home in the pleasant central city district.
Security footage, circulated widely on the internet, shows a man running towards Vicha and throwing him violently to the ground before turning around and fleeing, according to KTVU Fox 2 News.
Vicha died in hospital in the early hours of Saturday and soon after, police reportedly charged a 19-year-old man, Antoine Watson, with murder and 20-year-old female friend, Maylasia Goo, with being an accessory to the killing.
The broad daylight attack has caused alarm among members of the Asian-American community in the Bay Area.
"There's nothing non-intentional about it," said Vicha's son-in-law, Eric Lawson. He and his wife Kim, Vicha's daughter, believed the attacker targeted him because he was an elderly Asian.
This image from CCTV footage shows the moment Vicha Ratanapakdee was fatally attacked in Anza Vista, San Francisco.
