Man accused of following Asian woman home and killing her told cops he was ‘trying to protect’ her

The homeless man who killed Christina Yuna Lee informed authorities another person had dedicated the homicide (Image: AP)

The homeless man accused of following Christina Yuna Lee residence and killing her informed cops that he was ‘attempting to guard’ her from a thriller assassin, prosecutors mentioned throughout his arraignment Wednesday in Manhattan.

Assamad Nash, 25, informed police inside Lee’s New York Metropolis condominium final month that he was attempting to assist his buddy who was getting harm by anyone else.

‘I attempted to assist my buddy out. I used to be attempting to assist this feminine getting harm by different folks. I used to be attempting to assist the woman,’ Nash mentioned, in accordance with court docket filings.

He was arraigned on Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom and pleaded not responsible to prices that embody homicide, housebreaking and housebreaking as a sexually motivated felony.

As soon as police had been in a position to break into Lee’s barricaded condominium, they discovered Nash hiding underneath her mattress. The accused killer then supplied statements to the police, pretending to even be a sufferer within the horrific crime.

‘The dude stabbed us up, the dude stabbed me within the leg. I used to be attempting to guard the woman. The dude went out on the balcony. He escaped too,’ he claimed.

Lee, 35, was present in a blood-filled bathtub with over 40 stab wounds to her torso, head and neck.

Lee, a Rutgers College graduate, labored as a senior inventive producer at Splice, a web based platform for digital music.

Whereas being faraway from the condominium Nash, who has a historical past of misdemeanor arrests, allegedly rambled about just lately being launched from jail, being from Chinatown and that he had a ‘producer’ who lives in Harlem, in accordance with court docket paperwork.

Surveillance video taken on February 13 revealed Nash creeping behind Lee as she entered her constructing and walked up six flights to stairs to her condominium simply after 4am. Nash adopted from a ground beneath her earlier than forcing his means into her condominium.

Lee’s neighbors quickly heard her screams throughout the heinous stabbing, and known as the police. Once they arrived, the door to Lee’s condominium had been locked, with Nash barricaded inside.

Lee’s homicide is amongst a collection of current killings and unprovoked assaults on Asian-Individuals, notably in New York Metropolis, the place there have been 131 focused assaults on New Yorkers of Asian respectable in 2021, up from 27 whole in 2020, in accordance with the New York Day by day Information.