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Dec. 4, 2017 By Christian Murray
A Korean man who attacked two Chinese women and then robbed them in Flushing last year pleaded guilty Friday to robbery as a hate crime, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office.
Key S. Lee, 35, of Hawthorne Avenue, punched the women in the face in two separate incidents before stealing their cash and credit cards. When he was arrested, he told police: “I don’t like Chinese people.”
“In pleading guilty, the defendant has now admitted to attacking the two Asian women because of his hatred for Chinese people,” Brown said. “This kind of bigotry and hate are not acceptable in a civilized society and will not be tolerated in Queens County.”
The first incident took place on Jan. 27, 2016, when Lee approached Ling Chou while she was chipping away layers of snow from her car. When she opened the back door of her car, he rushed up to her and pushed her into the back seat, punched her in the face and grabbed her purse, which contained a credit card, identification and approximately $2,000 in cash.
Upon admitting guilt, he said that he was angry since he had just got into a fight with his wife and that he was still angry with Chinese people following his time as a cab driver. “I wanted to fight someone because the Chinese people were rude and smoking in the car…I wanted to pick a fight and that is when I saw one female cleaning snow.”
The second attack took place in February 2016 and was prompted by road rage.
Kim was driving when he claimed his victim, Ziao Feng, cut him off in traffic and failed to signal. He followed her and when she parked her car he approached her on foot and attacked her.
He stated at the time, according to Brown, “I don’t like the Chinese and I went to Flushing to look for Chinese people.”
Kim is scheduled to be sentence on Dec. 18 and faces five years in prison, which would be followed by five years’ post release supervision.
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