~San Diego
~10 am Morning Walk
~81 year old Asian man
~Mark Sonouvong
SDPD investigating hate crime after 81-year-old Asian man was attacked
The 81-year-old man, Mark Sonouvong, is recovering at Scripps Mercy Hospital, after being beaten Friday morning.
Now San Diego police say they have opened a hate crime investigation.
“They were afraid of a punctured left eye, he had a laceration on his forehead, guy kicked in his ribs pretty good and bloody nose, big, large black eye,” said Dennis Lambert. “He’s beat up pretty bad when I went to see him.”
Lambert says at around 10 a.m. Friday morning, Sonouvong was going about his typical morning walk.
“Some fellow came up and asked, ‘are you Chinese or Vietnamese?’ and my brother-in-law said leave me alone,” said Lambert.
That’s when the suspect, knocked him down to the ground and beat him up, according to Lambert.