Chinese Restaurant Employees Targeted in 2 Separate Attacks in Flushing

Wang claimed in a CBS News interview on Thursday that two of his employees were punched in the face by unknown individuals. He added that the force of the assault broke one of the victim’s glasses after he was followed off a subway.

“One employee was on the way to work during broad daylight,” he explained. “The other was about to get home from work during the early evening.”

Wang said this has never happened to them before the pandemic, adding the employee who had his glasses broken is still traumatized by the attack.

“He’s always looking around and he is not entering trains with no people in it or very the people in it out of concern for his own safety,” he said. “It paints a picture of how thing are, really, for a lot of folks.”

As a safety precaution, Wang has decided to close his stores an hour or two earlier than their regular closing time.

“Before the pandemic we used to close at maybe 9:30 or 10:30. But now all of our locations close at 8:30,” he said. “Our employee safety is always number one on our list, because we have to make our employees feel safe before we’re able to do business.”

Wang also fears for his own safety whenever he is outside his home or business.

“If I hear someone nowadays, if they’re coming up behind me, quickly enough where I can hear them, I try to turn around and take a look,” Wang said via Gothamist. “Right now it feels like I better have my hands on some keys or something, where if something were to happen I can defend myself.”

Other workers at Xi’an Famous Foods fear going outside and coming to work, explained Wang.

“When these things happen, it makes our employees feel uneasy to go to work,” Wang said. “Uneasy to take the train, uneasy to walk outside. And that’s really a problem because people aren’t able to live the way they usually live.”

Founded by Wang, Xi’an Famous Foods started its operations at an underground eatery in a mall in Flushing, New York. The restaurant then grew into a chain of restaurants with 14 branches, with only eight in operation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Wang.

Feature Image via Getty (left), Gary Stevens (right; (CC BY 2.0))