Grisly Surveillance Video Shows Man Stalk Woman To New York City Apartment Before Murdering Her

Video has emerged showing the terrifying lead-up to a violent murder of a woman in New York City inside her own apartment in Chinatown, the New York Post reported Monday.

In the earlier hours of Sunday morning, 35-year old Christina Yuna Lee was caught on camera entering her Chrystie Street apartment building, unaware that a man was following behind her just as the entrance closed. As she strolled to her sixth floor apartment, the man continued to follow her, still unnoticed.

Minutes later, the man pushed his way into Lee's apartment, prompting the first 911 that call went out around 4:30 a.m. by a panicked neighbor who told first responders that she heard Lee's screams as she was being stabbed to death.

“She was calling for help, screaming for help. I woke up to it. It was awful,” the 21-year-old neighbor told the New York Post. “‘Help me! Call 911!’ — that’s exactly what she said over and over and over again.”

New York City police officers soon arrived on the scene and found the door to Lee's apartment barricaded. Officers called in for help from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit to secure entry. An officer on the roof spotted the man attempting to flee via a fire escape, but he then retreated back into the building. Soon after, he was discovered with blood on his hands and hiding underneath Lee’s bed.

Lee, who worked as a senior creative producer at Splice, an online platform for digital music, was found with multiple stab wounds in her bathtub. The New York City Fire Department pronounced her dead at 5:55 a.m.

The suspect has been identified as Assamad Nash, 25, a homeless man with three open criminal cases against him, according to the NYPD. Nash was arrested and charged with murder and burglary Monday.

Lee’s death is the latest grisly murder that has gripped the Big Apple, adding to a sense of anxiety as the once-safest big city in the U.S. grapples with rising crime rates. The murder of Lee, who was Asian-American, comes at a time of heightened concerns about a rise in hate crimes against New Yorkers of Asian descent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Police have not yet indicated if they believe Lee's murder was a hate crime.

New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul each expressed their condolences to Lee’s family and pledged to stand with the Asian American community. Adams, a former NYPD captain, vowed to not let this crime go “unchecked”.

"While the suspect who committed this heinous act is now in custody, the conditions that created him remain. The mission of this administration is clear: We won’t let this violence go unchecked," Adams said in a statement released by his office.