CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) -- A Charlotte family’s store was ransacked in what they call an anti-Asian attack.
The family that owns the Plaza Sundries says racial slurs were yelled at them as a vandal ransacked anything he could inside their store at the Charlotte Transportation Center.
The owner's son tells FOX 46 that they've had enough cases of vandalism there to know they shouldn't get in the way of the attacker. But in this case, they say as the attacker was making his way through, he was yelling slurs and was being egged on by someone else.
It happened around 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 30. Authorities say the man in the video is Xavier Woody-Silas, destroying items all around the store, and doing it in about a minute.
"He just went down the aisles, breaking everything he could,” Mark Sung said.
Sung is the owner’s son. He says this is not the first time the store has been vandalized.
"It happens pretty often...at least once a year."
But Sung says this one took on a different tone. There’s no sound to the video, but Sung says what the said during the incident is just as important as what he's accused of doing.
"'Go back to your country, you Chinese motherf******s.', And then towards the end, his friend--he's kind of trying to push him to go more--and he's saying 'that's what you get' over and over to my parents,” Sung said.
Anti-Asian sentiment and hate is often underreported in Charlotte, but it has been in the spotlight, since a string of anti-Asian attacks have made headlines. Just this past weekend, a rally was held to address just that.
Sung says his parents, who are Korean, have lived here for decades. He, himself was born in Charlotte.
The suspect, Xavier Woody-Silas, has a history of arrests. This is his eighth arrest in Mecklenburg County in the last two years and his third arrest so far this year.
There is one positive thing that has come out of this event what happened here, and it's the community response.
Sung told FOX 46 that insurance will only cover a fraction of the damage to the store, so a cousin of his set up a GoFundMe account to help offset the additional cost. It's now raised more than $20,000.
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