Police in San Francisco arrested a man suspected of stabbing two Asian woman at a bus stop in the California city on Tuesday.
Witnesses told KPIX-TV in San Francisco that a man holding a knife approached the bus stop, stabbed the women and walked away at approximately 5 p.m.
San Francisco police officials confirmed that officers arrested a male suspect in the stabbing at approximately 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
Authorities confirmed that the women are 65 and 85. They were both hospitalized after the incident.
“Disgusting and horrific attack on Market St this afternoon of two Asian seniors,” San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney shared on Twitter. “Nothing more sickening than stabbing an 85-year-old woman while she waits for the bus. Horrific.”
Haney later confirmed that both of the victims were stable following surgeries, and their families joined them at the hospital.
KPIX-TV identified the 85-year-old victim as Chui Fong Eng, who sustained stab wounds in the chest and arm.
Drew Eng, Chui Fong Eng’s grandson, told the outlet that his grandmother was waiting for the bus after grocery shopping in the city’s Chinatown.
“She was attacked from behind and stabbed through the arm and into the chest,” Eng, whose grandmother has lived in San Francisco for 50 years, said. “And they had to keep her that way and strap her tight ’til they got to the hospital in the ambulance.”
Jenny Shao, a witness to the violent incident, told KPIX-TV that “the assailant walked up to their victim stabbed them and very casually walked away in broad daylight.”
The stabbing comes as the U.S. grapples with an uptick in anti-Asian violence across the country.
New hate crime data from the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino found that hate crimes against Asian Americans rose by 169 percent when comparing the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021 in 15 major cities.
Updated 12:53 p.m.