Olympian Suni Lee says she was pepper-sprayed in racist attack in LA

Gymnast Suni Lee says she was pepper sprayed in racist attack in LA

Gymnast Suni Lee says she was the victim of a racist attack claiming she had been pepper sprayed while out in LA.

LOS ANGELES - Olympic champion Suni Lee says she was the victim of a racist attack.

The gymnast says she and her friends were out in LA, waiting for an Uber, when a group of people hurled racist comments at them... one of them pepper-sprayed Lee in the arm.

The group then left the area. Lee says all her friends are of Asian descent. Lee is the first Hmong-American to represent the United States in the Olympics.

Reports of hate crimes in Los Angeles County rose to 635 last year, reaching their highest point in a dozen years and continuing a trend of increases, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations.

The survey showed that the 20% increase in hate crime was largely due to a 53% spike in racial crimes. Crimes targeting Blacks, Latinos, whites and Asians all rose dramatically. The increase reflects the largest numeric and percentage increase since 2003.

Anti-Asian hate crimes increased by 76% in 2020, mirroring a trend in many other jurisdictions as physical and verbal attacks on Asian Americans rose during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 44 anti-Asian hate crimes reported in the county in 2020, more than three-quarters involved physical violence -- up from 58% in 2018, the report shows.

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