Chinatown murder suspect has history of seven arrests in past seven years

Frustration is mounting over the arrest record of Assamad Nash, the man accused of following a young woman home and then killing her in her Manhattan Chinatown apartment this weekend.

ABC7 News reports police have arrested Nash 7 times in the past 7 years. 

Prosecutors charged Nash with murder and burglary after they say he followed Christina Yuna Lee, 35, into her apartment and killed her. Details from the case reveal that he’s accused of stabbing her 40 times. 

This was not Nash’s first arrest from violence. In September of 2021, he was arrested on charges of punching a man in the Chinatown subway station, according to ABC7.

He’s been released without bail twice even after being rearrested for failing to appear in court.

David Elliot says Nash punched him in the eye in September 2021.

“I just wish they would have — I don’t know,” Elliot said to New York Daily News. “They’re just letting people out of jail so fast.”

Others wonder if Nash should have received mental health examinations after previous arrests, reports NBC New York. Nash had stood before a judge in Manhattan for subway-related crimes just a month before Lee’s murder.

However, he was freed without bail, with supervised release on Jan. 7. His mental health was not questioned during that appearance, NBC New York reports.

Many Asian American women in New York feel uncertain about safety in their community. 

“It’s just scary,” Yul Lee, 31, said to the Washington Post. 

Community leaders also spoke about the recurrence of violence against Asian Americans, demanding a safer community. 

“We want to live in a safe community where we don’t have to worry when we go out of the apartment, and we don’t have to worry when we are going into subway that we’re going to be subject to an attack,” said Charles Yoon, Korean American Association of Greater New York, to ABC7 News.

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