Crime and Courts

DC police investigate Chinatown assault as possible hate crime

Woman visiting from Boston says she was struck with a grill

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A weekend trip to D.C. took a terrifying turn for a woman from Boston, and police have opened a potential hate crime investigation.

Roulin Wu said she was walking with a friend in Chinatown last Saturday morning when a stranger hit her in the head with a grill without provocation and told her to “Go back to China.”

“Right after the incident, I was, I think I like cried for straight an hour,” Wu said.

“Mentally, I was taking some time to recover from that,” she said.

Wu said for the rest of her trip, she held tight to a selfie stick in case she needed to defend herself.

“I was actually thinking about I need to establish a will so that if I die, my parents can get my money,” she said.

D.C. police said they’re investigating the attack as potentially being motivated by hate or bias.

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