San Francisco Man Charged In South Bay Anti-Asian Hate Crime

SAN JOSE, CA — A San Francisco man was charged in connection with a felony hate crime at the San Jose Diridon Caltrain Station on Wednesday after an Asian woman was sexually assaulted as she was waiting for her train.

The suspect, 32-year-old Johan Strydom, will be arraigned on Friday afternoon on charges of assault with an intent to commit rape and assault with force likely to cause bodily injury. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office added hate crime enforcements to the charges, according to a news release.

The 26-year-old woman, who did not know her attacker, was waiting for her train to work and on the phone with her boyfriend when she was grabbed by the neck, tossed to the ground and dragged while the suspect repeatedly said anti-Asian slurs, according to the district attorney.

Her boyfriend and other witnesses helped stop the attack and detain the suspect, who was arrested minutes later near SAP Center. The attack lasted a minute, the district attorney said. The Diridon Station is typically a busy transit hub for South Bay commuters.

“This is every woman’s nightmare, and this is our community’s nightmare,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a news release. “This is also a tale of heroism. Our community came to this woman’s aid and stopped the attack. Hate crimes are not someone else’s problem. They are mine. They are yours. It will take all of us to confront them.”

This is the second anti-Asian hate crime that Rosen’s office has announced it is prosecuting this week, amid a recent rise in violence against Asian Americans locally and nationally. On Monday, a Marin County woman was charged in connection with a hate crime in Mountain View, when authorities said she spat on a stranger of Asian descent, uttered an ethnic slur and told her to go back to “where you come from.”

"Our community stands together against any hatred and racism against the Asian Pacific Islander community," Rosen said in a news release earlier this week. "It is ignorant. It is wrong. And when it is criminal — those who are charged will face the full power of my Office to hold them accountable."

If convicted, Strydom faces a “significant” prison sentence, according to the district attorney.