The 2021 killing of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee sent shock waves through San Francisco and brought national attention to violence against Asian Americans during the pandemic.
This month, five years on, the case has returned to the headlines, sparking renewed controversy. Last week, a jury declined to convict the perpetrator in the attack on charges of murder and elder abuse. Instead, Antoine Watson, 24, was found guilty of manslaughter and assault.
Watson will return to court on Monday for a trial on aggravating factors, after which the sentencing will be scheduled, according to the San Francisco district attorney’s office.
Ratanapakdee, who was originally from Thailand, had gone out for a morning walk near the home he shared with his wife, daughter and her family, when he encountered Watson. Footage captured on a security camera in the Anza Vista neighborhood showed Watson, then 19, suddenly run toward Ratanapakdee and shove the man to the ground before fleeing the area. Ratanapakdee died in a hospital two days later.
The unprovoked violence came as Asian communities faced a rise in hate speech, harassment and verbal abuse, as the first Trump administration ramped up its trade war with China and racist taunts of “kung flu” or “China virus” spread during the pandemic .
Anti-Asian hate crimes in the US increased 77% from 2019 to 2020, from 158 to 279, according to data from the US Department of Justice. A study published by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism found that between 2020 and 2021, hate crimes against Asian Americans rose 339%. A 2022 report by Stop AAPI Hate documented more than 11,400 hate incidents against Asian Americans reported across the US from March 2020 to March 2022; the data includes race-based bullying and harassment incidents that are not considered crimes.
San Francisco saw what law enforcement described as an “alarming rise” in that period, with a 567% increase in reports of hate crimes against Asian Americans, from nine in 2020 to 60 in 2021, according to police data.
Ratanapakdee’s killing was one of a string of high-profile attacks on Asian elders and left the city’s Asian communities on edge, said Alan Wong, a San Francisco supervisor who worked on legislation requiring city police to publish demographic data around hate crimes.
“There were many Asian seniors that were picked on, targeted, bullied, subjected to violence,” Wong said, adding that the incidents seemed racially motivated and targeted. “They’re seen as people that are vulnerable, that don’t speak English, that might not speak up and are older and frail.”
Asian elders were afraid to leave their homes amid the wave of attacks, Wong said. He described Ratanapakdee’s death as a “turning point” for the city, and said the 84-year-old became a symbol of the Stop Asian Hate movement, inspiring people to come together and stand up against hate.
Watson always denied he assaulted Ratanapakdee because he was Asian. He told authorities that he was experiencing personal challenges that morning in January 2021, and his attorneys described his actions as an impulsive act made in an “emotional storm”. Earlier that morning, he had crashed his car and was unable to start it.
Watson saw Ratanapakdee looking at him and believed the elderly man was “judging” him, Watson said in court earlier this month, telling the jury he didn’t realize Ratanapakdee was older or Asian.
Jennifer Steiner, a family friend acting as a spokesperson, told the New York Times Magazine in 2021: “Antoine didn’t wake up Jan 28, 2021, with the idea of shoving somebody down and killing them, regardless of their race or gender. That’s not who he is.”
Prosecutors ultimately did not file hate crime charges.
Mano Raju, a San Francisco public defender, expressed sympathy to Ratanapakdee’s family, but maintained that the political climate at the time shaped public reaction to the case. “It’s important to understand that the district attorney did not charge this case as a hate crime because there was no evidence of bias. The evidence presented at trial also confirmed that Mr Watson’s actions were impulsive and misguided rather than motivated by hatred or bias,” Raju said.
But Ratanapakdee’s family have long maintained they believe race played a role in the attack.
“He was attacked while simply walking in his neighborhood. His death changed our family forever. It also sent a message of fear to many seniors, especially Asian American elders, who should be able to walk outside without fear,” his family said in a statement last week.
A jury last week found Watson guilty of manslaughter and assault, but not murder and elder abuse.
Ratanapakdee’s family, and some officials, were frustrated by the jury’s ruling.
The family said they respected the jury’s service and the legal process, but were “deeply disappointed”.
“The individual that committed this horrific crime did it in a malicious and very evil way against a vulnerable senior,” Wong said. “We all saw what happened and the results of the verdict are not reflective of what we all saw.”
Under the charges he was convicted of, Watson, who has been in custody for five years, faces a maximum nine-year sentence. Jurors will hear arguments on aggravating factors on Monday, which could lead to an additional sentence.
Raju said the trial was fair and the evidence carefully reviewed by jurors. He said: “Mr Watson has been incarcerated for the past five years since he was 19 years old. He has expressed deep remorse for his actions and has shown meaningful growth. My hope is that our communities can move forward by investing in restorative processes that prioritize healing for individuals harmed.”
Amid growing outrage over this month’s proceedings, Garry Tan, the CEO of the startup accelerator Y Combinator and a major political donor in the city, urged people to write community impact statements to the court.
“What happened to Vicha shook our community. But what happened in court shook our faith,” he wrote in a statement shared on social media.
“Please let this sentence show what happened to Vicha mattered. That Asian American lives matter. That our elders matter.”
While some of the fears that permeated the city’s Asian American community during the pandemic have subsided, concerns remain, particularly after the verdict, Wong said.
“[Some people] don’t feel safe coming out to walk on the streets because they don’t feel that they are going to get adequate justice or will be protected,” Wong said.
“This is not only about an individual person. It’s about something larger.”
The Associated Press contributed
• This story was amended on 24 January 2026 to correct the maximum sentence Antoine Watson faces.
