<p>NEW YORK &mdash; A 61-year-old Asian man was attacked by a man who kicked him repeatedly in the head in East Harlem, police said.</p>
<p>The man was collecting cans when he was attacked from behind, knocked to the ground and kicked in the head shortly after 8 p.m. Friday. He was taken to Harlem Hospital in critical but stable condition, police said.</p>
<p>Surveillance video released by the police appears to show the attacker stomping on the victim’s head. The police department’s hate crimes task force is investigating the attack, the latest in a troubling rise in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-discrimination-immigration-crime-massachusetts-c9e6799604805cffb34d717af2a30409"> anti-Asian hate crimes </a> in New York and around the country.</p>
<p>Mayor Bill de Blasio called the assault “outrageous” on <a href="https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1385974538035470339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385974538035470339%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fabc7ny.com%2Fnyc-crime-hate-east-harlem-attack-asian%2F10543319%2F">Twitter. </a> “Make no mistake, we will find the perpetrator and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” de Blasio said Saturday.</p>
<p>Police did not release the victim’s name, but multiple news outlets identified him as Yao Pan Ma, a former restaurant worker who lost his job because of the pandemic and was collecting cans to make ends meet.</p>
<p>The victim’s wife, Baozhen Chen, 57, pleaded for police to find her husband’s attacker in an interview with the <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/04/24/wife-of-asian-man-stomped-on-nyc-street-pleads-for-justice-2/">New York Post</a>.</p>
<p>"Please capture him as soon as possible and make him pay,” Chen said in Mandarin through a translator.</p>