A man was arrested after video captured him attacking an Asian female police officer in San Francisco's Chinatown on Friday, authorities said.
Gerardo Contreras, 33, faces hate crime, assault, resisting a police officer and false imprisonment charges, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
The officer, who authorities identified as an Asian woman, responded to a report of a man making threats towards other people in San Francisco's Chinatown at about 6:45 p.m. PT on Friday, police said.
After she tried to confront him, surveillance video showed the man attacking her, pushing her and pinning her to the ground. The video was released by the police union on Sunday.
The footage showed several bystanders rushing to the officer's aid and trying to pull the man off of her before backup officers arrived at the scene.
The woman's identity was not released by authorities, but police said she was taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life threatening, police said.
In a statement posted with the surveillance video, the police union said: "We are deeply grateful to these citizens who rushed to our officer’s aide."
It was unclear if Contreras had an attorney.
The incident was the latest act of violence against Asian Americans across the country this year.
An analysis of hate crime data in April revealed that the increase in anti-Asian attacks has remained consistent.
The research, released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that hate crimes surged 169 percent when comparing the first quarter of 2021 to the same time period in 2020 across 15 major cities.
A report from the center in March showed that hate crimes increased by nearly 150 percent in major cities last year.
