Woman Allegedly Punched 6-Year-Old Asian Boy While Hurling Racial Slurs

A woman allegedly hurled anti-Asian slurs at an Asian mother and her 6-year-old son before punching the young boy at a Las Vegas mall this week.

TikTok user @uhmmajo managed to film part of the alleged attack, which occurred at the upscale shopping mall The Shops at Crystals, located in the CityCenter complex. The user said she is pressing charges against the woman.

"This woman attacked my son. She punched my 6-year-old while yelling racist, anti-Asian things," the TikTok user alleged in the video she shared Wednesday.

The video did not show the woman striking the boy or using any explicitly racist language, but the woman can be heard yelling "China" at one point.

After her rant, the woman could be seen walking away, with a mall security guard escorting her. The mother alleged that the woman was eventually released without further reprimand.

"I hope the cops picked her up. Mall security just let her go. Yes, we are pressing charges #crystalsmall #arialasvegas #fyp #assault," the mother wrote in the caption of the TikTok video.

The alleged incident comes amid a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes across the country. A recent study by the Center for Study of Hate and Extremism revealed that anti-Asian hate crime reports have risen by 164% in 16 of the country's biggest cities compared to the same time last year.

Researchers found that 95 anti-Asian assaults or incidents had been reported to authorities in the first quarter of 2021. This was a huge spike compared to 36 incidents reported last year.

The Las Vegas metropolitan area has the third-largest population of Asian Americans outside of California out of all major West Coast cities, according to an Asian American Advancing Justice report. Asian-Americans are one of the fastest-growing groups in Las Vegas, with the Asian population in the area ballooning by 130% between 2000 and 2010.

The fight against hate crimes was sparked by the March 16 mass shooting in Atlanta where six of eight victims killed were of Asian descent.

"A lot of people woke up after the Atlanta shooting," an Asian American and Pacific Islander movement organizer who goes by the name of Wangdawg told Fox5 Vegas. "We want everyone to know that we won't stand for Asian American hate in our community."