The region’s Asian-American community is abuzz with talk of the most recent outrage to alarm Asiatown, the colorful neighborhood east of downtown.
On Feb. 13, a Saturday, a 33-year-old University Heights man was carjacked by two hooded teens at about 1:30 p.m. on East 27th Street near Asia Plaza, the busy mini-mall on Payne Avenue. The armed robbers ordered him to drive to an ATM machine. When he jumped from his car on East 30th Street, the gunman shot him in the back.
The man is expected to make a full recovery but with a bullet lodged in a vertebrae. Police have made no arrests.
The daylight attack shocked the Asian-American community. Moms and dads routinely drive in from the suburbs for shopping and dining in the eclectic neighborhood, but they are growing wary. In April, a clerk was brutally beaten in a gift shop inside Asia Plaza during an apparent robbery and attempted rape.
The most recent attack occurred as hundreds celebrated Lunar New Year inside the mall. The man who was shot had attended the festival with his wife. He was putting groceries into their parked car, he said in an interview, while she went ahead into Li Wah Restaurant.
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Article courtesy cleveland.com
