Actor Daniel Dae Kim knows all too well the trauma of anti-Asian hate violence.
He revealed to People that a driver twice struck his sister Connie with his car after telling her to get out of the way.
That happened six years ago. Today the marathon runner can no longer run.
Kim has been outspoken about anti-Asian violence. After a gunman shot and killed six Asian spa workers in Atlanta, a sheriff department described the shooter as “having a bad day.”
The actor says police also downplayed what happened to her sister telling her it wasn’t worth filing hate crime charges because its too hard to prove. Kim says he’s since found out the driver, who was convicted of a misdemeanor, allegedly has a history of violence against Asian women.
Kim originally told his story to CNN back in March.
“The man then backed up and hit her with the car,” said Kim to CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
“When my sister turned around and was shocked and told him that he just hit me, he backed up the car and as my sister was walking away, hit him again-knocking her to the ground. And this man had a history of violence toward other Asian women. When it got time to prosecute him, the DA was telling my sister that we’ll never get a hate crime. You should hope for whatever you can get. He ended up being convicted of reckless driving when he used his car as a weapon to kill my sister. No one in the system, willing to help her shepherd this case to the appropriate justice.”
Kim is set to play his first leading role after 31 years in the industry. He’ll star in National Geographic’s The Hot Zone: Anthrax.
The six part anthology series is set to debut next month on Nat Geo and Hulu.
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