A Chinatown landlord who has been vocal against crime after the high-profile murder of one of his tenants brutally beat a man he believed to be homeless and had a makeshift weapon on Saturday, police sources said.
The homeowner, 32-year-old Brian Chin, was charged with felony assault in the late-night attack, which left the homeless man so badly injured he was unable to give his name to investigators, sources said Sunday.
The man who was punched was also charged with menacing for his role in the brawl that began around 10 p.m. near Chrystie and Grand streets in Manhattan, police officials said.
Police sources said security camera footage from the scene showed a homeless man breaking a wooden chair and brandishing the piece of wood threateningly at Chin.
Police sources said the improvised club had a nail stuck into the tip.
In the video, the homeless man is seen brandishing a weapon at Chin.
Chin then lunged at the man, threw him to the ground and punched him repeatedly in the head and also appeared to kick him.
Police officials said the vagrant was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was intubated.
But police sources said that before smashing the chair, separate footage showed Chin approaching a homeless man and kicking him as he lay on the ground, after which the homeless man responded by smashing the chair.
Sources said Chin, who is cooperating with police, told police the homeless man had been harassing people before he was kicked.
Sources suggested the landlord may be traumatized by an incident in 2022 in which one of the residents of a Chinatown apartment building was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant.
In that murder, beloved Chinatown creative producer Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was followed to her home and stabbed 40 times in her kitchen by Asamad Nash, 27. Nash pleaded guilty to murder last month.
Speaking to The Washington Post after Lee’s memorial was vandalized shortly after her murder, Chin said she and the Asian community were “tired of being attacked.”
The homeowner was released on bail on the assault charge on Sunday and is next due to appear in court on October 10.
