The suspect wanted in a string of recent attacks on Asian women in Manhattan has been found dead of an apparent suicide. 25-year-old Tyrelle Shaw was found dead inside a basement on the Upper East Side.
In several blog posts, Shaw had expressed an obsessive "infatuation" with Asian women, described a plan to "hit over a million Asian women in the face," and announced his intention to take his own life.
Suspect in Attacks on Asian Women in Manhattan Found Dead of Apparent Suicide: Sources
Shaw was wanted in connection with at least four separate assaults that began on June 10. In each of the attacks, he approached his victims, then hit them in the face with a plastic bag containing a hard object, and ran off. In some of the attacks, he tried speaking to the victims. All of the victims were Asian women.
According to authorities, Shaw's body was found in an elevator shaft. He apparently hanged himself.
The suspect, 25-year-old Tyrell Shaw, apparently hanged himself and was found in an elevator shaft on the 700 block of Madison Avenue, according to the sources. The body was positively identified as Shaw's.
He is believed to have been dead for several days. Sources familiar with the investigation say the building super found him in the bottom of the elevator shaft, and he was wearing a silver space suit-type outfit. It wasn't clear how Shaw managed to access the building and the elevator shaft.
Shaw's passport and a suicide note were discovered near his body, the sources said, though the nature of the note wasn't clear.
"Silver space suit-type outfit"?
In a blog post dated June 16, Shaw announced that he intended to kill himself, and had come up with a plan involving an elevator and a noose to take his own life. It sounds like he actually went through with it.
Shaw was identified as the suspect when relatives stepped forward and contacted police after seeing him in surveillance video from the most recent attack, in which he attacked a woman working at a dry cleaning shop.
Around the same time, authorities uncovered Shaw's blog, in which he wrote several posts about being rejected by Asian women, resolving to use violence to get what he wanted, and his plan to start an "independent civil war where I will hit over a million Asian Women in the face."
I'm disgusted by everything about this story. I hate that this all began with some dude's sicko racist obsession with Asian women. This misogynist asshole, who felt so entitled to the attention of Asian women, that when faced with rejection, his response was to use violence -- to hurt as many Asian women as possible. And then, in taking his own life, Shaw avoids justice and attempts to paint himself as the victim in this scenario?
I'm sorry that a man is dead, but I hope people recognize the racism and misogyny that led him to this place.
More here: Man Suspected Of Attacking Asian Woman Found Dead In Upper East Side Basement