Global Courant 2023-05-21 20:43:37
The family of a Chinatown woman brutally stabbed to death is now suing New York City and NYPD officers who responded to neighbors’ initial 911 calls.
The estate of Christian Yuna Lee filed a lawsuit against the City of New York and 10 members of the New York City Police Department in Manhattan Criminal Court earlier this month. Lee was allegedly killed by a homeless man with a long criminal record, who was caught on video last year sneaking into her building and following her to her apartment
Lee, a 35-year-old Korean-American creative producer, was found stabbed more than 40 times in the bathtub of her Chrystie Street apartment in Manhattan on February 13, 2022.
Police say they have arrested a homeless man, Assamad Nash, 25, who was hiding under Lee’s mattress. Nash has since pleaded not guilty to murder, burglary and sexually motivated burglary in connection with Lee’s death. The lawsuit notes that Lee’s apartment was across the street from Sara D. Roosevelt Park, which had long attracted crime, drug users, and the homeless.
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Months before Lee’s death, Sala Miah, a 51-year-old GrubHub delivery boy from Bangladesh, was punched in the face, stabbed to death and robbed of his bicycle in the same park. Joseph Sandoval was arrested that same month for Miah’s murder.
Assamad Nash, center, is escorted by police officers from the 5th Precinct in Manhattan, New York, Monday, February 14, 2022. (Shawn Inglima/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The City of New York “was aware of and failed to take control of significant public safety conditions at Sara D. Roosevelt Park prior to and on the night of February 13, 2022, including but not limited to violent crimes such as the October 16, 2021 , stabbing to death of Sala Miah, a delivery driver, just outside Sara D. Roosevelt Park at Chrystie Street and Hester Street, two blocks from Mrs. Lee’s apartment, and inadequate fencing and nighttime lighting,” says the filing obtained by Fox News Digital.
“The hazardous conditions at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, a public park owned, maintained and operated by Defendant CITY OF NEW YORK, were known to Defendant CITY OF NEW YORK and contributed to the harm and suffering of Plaintiff and the interference with Plaintiff’s private interests,” the lawsuit says. “By failing to control hazardous conditions at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, Defendant has caused an intentional, reckless, and negligent nuisance that substantially and unreasonably prejudices Plaintiff’s rights and private interests. got in the way.”
The night she was killed, Lee traveled home in a taxi and entered her apartment building at approximately 4:20 am. Nash snuck into the building behind her, police said.
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A protester holds a photo of Christina Yuna Lee, who was murdered in her Chinatown apartment on February 13, 2022. (Michael M.Santiago/Getty Images)
The lawsuit says Lee struggled with her attacker and screamed for help for at least five minutes, during which time her neighbors called 911 and reported the ongoing attack.
Two NYPD officers were about three blocks from the apartment at the time, responded to 911, and heard Lee scream for help. Still, the lawsuit says, “those two officers did not gain access to Ms. Lee’s apartment or provide any police or medical assistance to Ms. Lee at that time.”
The filing alleges that Lee’s screams stopped abruptly and that the officers allegedly spoke to Nash through the locked door of Lee’s apartment.
“Despite the proximity of the NYPD’s 5th Precinct to Ms. Lee’s apartment,” the filing claims, another seven officers did not arrive at the apartment until about 5:30 a.m. — more than an hour after neighbors called 911 and the first two officers Lee had heard them screaming for help.
Members of the Korean American Association hold a rally near the building where Christina Yuna Lee was murdered on February 15, 2022 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
“At approximately 5:40 a.m., one hour and twenty minutes after Ms. Lee was first assaulted, members of the NYPD Emergency Services Unit broke into Ms. Lee’s apartment,” the lawsuit said. The NYPD bureau found Lee in the apartment, “where she had been fatally stabbed more than 40 times in the neck and torso.”
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She was pronounced dead at her home at approximately 5:55 a.m. At the time, Nash had four pending cases of prior arrest in New York City for subway crime.
Lee’s aunt, Boksun Lee, is suing as administrator of her niece’s estate. Lee is also survived by her parents, Jung Lee and Sungkon Lee, who are the legal divisions of her estate.
Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace.
