[NYDAILYNEWS] A Chinese immigrant who was beaten on a Manhattan street and told to go home has a message for the hate crime perpetrator who punched him in the eye and bit off part of his finger: "America is my country now."Youya Hua, 48, declared his allegiance Thursday after suspect Lloyd Revell was picked up early Thursday at the Skyline Hotel on 10th Ave. where homeless people have been staying during the pandemic.
Hua, 48, said he was on W. 43rd St. Tuesday morning, talking on the phone with his mother, when the suspect "walked to my back and punched my eye."
"I don’t know what’s happening. I just feel somebody punch me," Hua said. "And I turn and he punched me again and he said, ’Go back to your country,’ or something."
At that point, Hua grabbed the suspect so he could hand him over to police but "that guy bit off my finger."
The suspect actually bit two of the victim’s fingers, said one his sons, William, 13, but tore off a small chunk from the middle digit. He was treated at Mount. Sinai West Hospital.
The encounter left Hua shaken.
"I’m so sad," he said. "I’m so scared...because if something happens to my family who protects them?"
Hua said hate-filled attacks have no place in his adopted home. He said he’s not going anywhere.
"OK, I’m from China," Hua said. "Back to my country is back to China. My kids were born here and my family is here. My job is here. Everything is here. Go where?
"America is my country now."
Revell, charged with assault as a hate crime, served prison time for an attempted assault conviction in the Bronx and was conditionally released by parole in April 2019. He has numerous other arrests, a police source said.