In a shocking turn of events, Brian Chin, a landlord from Chinatown, New York City, is now facing up to seven years in prison after being caught on camera striking a homeless man. Chin insists he was acting in self-defense during the altercation.
A routine encounter goes awry
The incident began around 8:30 PM on Saturday when Chin, a 32-year-old Harvard fellow with a degree in psychology, encountered a homeless man near the subway entrance at Chrystie and Grand streets in Manhattan.
“I recognized him because he was a panhandler that has been frequently hanging out on Grand Street. He has never been violent to me,” Chin noted.
When the man didn’t respond to his questions, Chin recalled, “I ask him, ‘Are you OK, man? Do I have to call the cops? Do I have to call the ambulance?’ Nothing.”
Escalation and self-defense
The video, released by Chin, shows him kicking the man, which he described as a “tap” to check if the man had overdosed. “We have so many drug overdoses and deaths and pretty much every conceivable horror that you can imagine,” Chin recounted.
However, the situation quickly escalated. The homeless man grabbed a metal folding chair and began smashing his surroundings. Chin, still haunted by the murder of his tenant Christina Yuna Lee two years earlier, was on high alert.
“Especially after the murder, if someone is acting violent, I just like to stand by the front door, just to make sure that no one gets followed in, all my tenants are safe,” he explained.
The confrontation
Upon returning from his office restroom, Chin found the homeless man wielding a nail-studded club. “That’s when he pulled the club from his back, raised it above his head and started charging at me. If I had not moved out of the way these multiple times, quite possibly I would be dead,” Chin described.
In the ensuing struggle, Chin attempted to disarm the man. “I charge at him. I do not hit him. I attempt to grab the weapon with both hands … and we start to fall down onto the ground,” he recounted. The video shows Chin striking the man six times in the head before stepping back and urging someone to call the police.
Aftermath and legal battle
The homeless man was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries, unable to provide his name or identification. He now faces menacing charges once identified.
Chin, who served as an Army reservist specializing in Psychological Operations, maintained that he left the man with only a bloody nose. He suggested that the more severe “eight or nine-inch” head injury occurred after police arrived when the man fell and hit the pavement. “I feel awful. I never want anyone to get hurt,” Chin stated.
Despite statements from “multiple witnesses” supporting his self-defense claim, Chin has been charged by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and now faces a possible seven-year jail sentence.
“Why is my life being upended, my teaching career destroyed?” he lamented. “Why is this happening to me when I was only defending my life from a man who unprovokedly attacked me with a deadly weapon?”
