A man arrested on suspicion of repeatedly stomping on an elderly Chinese can collector's head is a sex attacker with a lengthy criminal history.
Jarrod Powell, 49, was charged with attempted murder for allegedly attacking Yao Pan Ma, 61, and stomping on his head at least six times while he was collecting cans to recycle for extra cash in East Harlem on Saturday.
Powell, who is homeless, was taken into custody at Ward's Island men's homeless shelter on Monday night after another resident recognized him from surveillance footage. That resident notified shelter workers who held him until police arrived, the New York Daily News reported.
On Tuesday, it emerged that Powell was paroled in May 2012 after he served more than five years for felony assault, according to records obtained by the outlet. He was also conditionally released by parole In 2000 after served about two years on an attempted assault conviction.
According to WABC, Powell had allegedly kidnapped a 23-year-old woman from an apartment in the Staten Island borough of New York City on January 25, 1998 before sexually assaulting her.
Jarrod Powell, 49, was arrested and charged with two crimes for assaulting an Asian man in New York City
He was charged with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, sexual misconduct, and sex assault but it was not immediately clear if he those were the charges he was reportedly serving time for when he was paroled in 2000.
Powell was arrested again for subway fare evasion eight times between July 2002 and December 2004 before he was busted again for assault twice at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in February 2006, WABC reported.
He was initially charged with two counts of felony assault for the attack on Ma but those charges were upgraded on Tuesday to attempted murder and assault as a hate crime, WABC reported.
Powell has been arrested 16 times and had contact with police at least 33 times since 1988 - mostly for assaults, police sources told outlets.
'He shouldn't be out in these streets,' one source told the New York Post.
He is pictured while he is walked out of a police precinct on his way to a court appearance
Yao Pan Ma was left in a medically induced coma after the unidentified attacker stomped on his head at least six times
The horrific video shows the suspect slamming his foot down on Ma's head while his shopping cart full of recyclables sits nearby
The attacker was then seen casually walking away and no arrests had been made as of Saturday evening
Powell claims he had been beaten and robbed on Thursday night by a group of Asian men that included Ma, sources told the Daily News.
Cops called Powell's claims questionable and believe he is trying to 'justify targeting Ma,' the outlet reported.
It wasn't clear if Powell, 49, had an attorney who could comment on his new charges.
He then reportedly assaulted a fellow inmate at Rikers Island with a food tray before punching them.
Ma was collecting cans when he was attacked from behind, knocked to the ground and kicked in the head. He was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he remained in a coma on Tuesday, officials said.
Police sources told the New York Post that Ma suffered a cerebral contusion and facial fractures - and a photo Chen provided the outlet shows him hooked up to medical gear in the hospital.
Yao Pan Ma and his wife Baozhen Chen Ma, who have two adult children, moved to New York from China's Guangdong province in 2019.
The horrifying moment was caught on video and released by the NYPD.
Ma, who worked in a restaurant before he was laid off because of the coronavirus pandemic, was collecting cans for extra cash in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan at around 8.30pm on Friday night when he was attacked.
The horrific video shows the suspect slamming his foot down on Ma's head while his shopping cart full of recyclables sits nearby.
The attacker then casually walks away. Ma was found when a bus driver called police after seeing him unconscious, WABC reported.
Witness Armetha Knight, 37, told the New York Daily News that Ma was 'minding his business with his shopping cart' before the unprovoked assault.
'When he got to the scaffolding, an African American man attacked him from behind,' she said. 'He hit him from behind and then curb-stomped him.'
A man believed to be Powell is pictured from surveillance photos released by police before his arrest
Horrific video allegedly shows the suspect slamming his foot down on Ma's head while his shopping cart full of recyclables sits nearby
The attack comes amid a string of anti-Asian assaults across the Big Apple and the footage echoed last month´s assault near Times Square in which a Filipina American woman was knocked to the ground and stomped on. A parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago was arrested in that attack.
Ma's devastated wife of 31 years has pleaded for cops to 'make him pay,' the New York Post reported over the weekend.
His 57-year-old wife Baozhen Chen told the New York Post that her husband is a 'hardworking man.'
People hold a photo of 61-year old Yao Pan Ma who was was attacked from behind, pushed to the ground, and repeatedly kicked
Baozhen Chen, the wife of 61-year old Yao Pan Ma who was was attacked from behind, pushed to the ground, and repeatedly kicked in the head is comforted by police during a press conference in Harlem on Tuesday
Police have made an arrest in the assault of a 61-year-old Asian man who is now fighting for his life
'Please capture him as soon as possible and make him pay,' Chen told the outlet in Mandarin through a translator.
She sobbed as she described hear fear after hearing news about her husband.
'I was scared. I was crying. I didn't know what to do. Why? Why did they do this to my husband? Why did this happen? It was sudden. I didn't expect this,' she said.
Chen said she was at work as a home attendant who takes care of elderly patients when police told her how her husband was attacked.
'My husband is a hard-working man. He picks up bottles to help pay the rent and the bills. He is innocent. He did not do anything wrong. He is a very kind person. He is quiet. He doesn't cause trouble to make people mad.'
Chen and her husband have two grown children who are both married and live in China, but have a 20-year-old niece in the city who was also rattled.
'We are completely in shock -- terrified and scared and frustrated,' Ma's niece told WABC.
'My uncle is a very quiet person, very hardworking. He's not the person to cause trouble.'
Chen said she has become more cautious lately since anti-Asian violence has risen across the country.
'I'm more cautious. I'm scared that someone would jump out and attack me like what they did to my husband. I look around me,' she said.
Police sources told the New York Post that Ma suffered a cerebral contusion and facial fractures - and a photo Chen provided the outlet shows him hooked up to medical gear in the hospital.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help raise money for Ma's medical bills and to support his family.
The police department´s hate crimes task force is investigating the attack, which appeared to be among the latest in a troubling rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in New York and around the country.
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