Doormen Fired for Lack of Response to Anti-Asian Attack Outside NYC Building

The New York Times has learned that the lobby staff members who stood around moments after a Filipino-American woman was brutally attacked outside their Manhattan apartment building have been fired. In a letter sent to residents, Rick Mason, executive director of management at the Brodsky Organization, which owns the building, informed them that the two doormen were being terminated after they failed to follow “required emergency and safety protocols.”

Vilma Kari, 65, was kicked and stomped several times by Brandon Elliot, 38, last week in what has become an alarming surge in anti-Asian violence across the United States since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elliot allegedly told Kari, “You don’t belong here.” She suffered a fractured pelvis from the attack.

The doormen were initially suspended as the Brodsky Organization conducted an investigation into the incident. Surveillance footage from inside the building shows staff members looking on motionless as Kari laid on the ground with another doorman walking over to the close the door to the entrance with the victim just a few feet away.

“While the full lobby video shows that once the assailant had departed, the doormen emerged to assist the victim and flag down an NYPD vehicle, it is clear that required emergency and safety protocols were not followed,” a statement from the Brodsky Organization reads.

Elliott has since been arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, assault and attempted assault in the attack he perpetrated against the woman. He was released from prison two years ago and placed on lifetime parole after being convicted in 2002 of killing his mother when he was 19 years old.