Stranger didn’t utter a word before bashing Asian man on Portland waterfront, victim says

Xinmin Liang is too frightened to stay at his downtown Portland apartment since he said a stranger approached him on a floating dock along the Eastbank Esplanade and began hitting him in the head with a thick stick.

The 73-year-old Liang said he reflexively lifted his arms and the flogging ended only when the stick broke. Now, several days after the attack Tuesday, one of his eyes is still mostly swollen shut and he’s scheduled for surgery next week on one of his arms that was fractured in two places.

Liang’s daughter, Jie Liang, said medical staff believe her father would be dead if he hadn’t raised his arms to protect his head from the brute force of the blows.

“He’s shaken to the core,” said Jie Liang. “This is just unthinkable brutalness. It feels like attempted murder.”

With her father’s permission, Jie Liang shared a photo taken after the attack. Warning: The photo, which is part of the family’s Reddit post, is graphic.

Jie Liang said her father loves fishing and in drier, warmer weather he will spend almost every day on the floating dock along the Esplanade between the Burnside and Steel bridges.

She said her father has relayed the events of that day to her – that it was about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday when he was fishing off the dock and a stranger approached. Without saying a word, the man began beating him with what appeared to be a stick or log that was about 5-inches thick. After it snapped, the man walked away but circled back for what her father thought would be another round.

But Jie Liang said her father picked up a nearby stick and fended off his attacker. He then had the wherewithal to grab the fish he’d already caught, pick up some evidence – a royal blue beanie with a Willamette Week logo that the man had been wearing – and head for a MAX train back to the apartment he shares with his wife.

“He thought, ‘OK, I can still move. I can walk to the MAX,” Jie Liang said.

Evidence — Jie Liang said her father picked up this beanie off the ground and said his attacker left it behind.Courtesy of Jie Liang

She said her father didn’t call 911 because he speaks Cantonese and Mandarin – and very little English. He didn’t realize that 911 dispatchers can use a translation line, if they can identify the language of the caller.

Jie Liang said while her father was on the MAX train, a few other passengers stared at him but didn’t intervene. Once at his apartment complex, a manager saw him covered in blood and called 911.

Jie Liang said she arrived a short time later. Her father said no one was around when the man went out of his way to attack him.

Xinmin Liang described his attacker as a white man. Xinmin Liang was born in China and is Asian.

“Right now, we strongly feel this is a hate crime,” his daughter said.

Portland police are searching for a suspect and are not investigating the case as a hate crime but are leaving open the possibility that it could turn out to be one.

“This is an open and active investigation and detectives are working diligently to locate the suspect,” police spokesperson Mike Benner said.

Police also are investigating the daylight stabbing along the same path that loops around the Willamette River that killed another man Friday, three days after Xinmin Liang reported being attacked. The violence in and around the downtown area is alarming, Jie Liang said.

Jie Liang, who grew up in China, said she moved to the United States first – marrying an American and eventually starting a family. She said her father and mother followed in 2015 to be near her, their only child. She said her father always spoke positively about his arrival to Oregon from communist China.

“He said this is a great thing to happen in his life because America is freedom,” Jie Liang said. “It’s democracy. It’s safety. It’s peace. But this incident completely changed his view.”

“Racism is something we – me and my parents – only experienced when we came to America,” she said.

Her mother and father adored their centrally located apartment – aware of downtown’s problems but feeling safe enough to enjoy the city as long as it was daylight. They often rode the bus or MAX to get where they needed to go, including to the eastside elementary that their grandchildren attend so they could pick them up after school.

In the aftermath of the attack, they’ve been staying in their daughter’s basement guest room. She is not sure if they will want to continue living in their downtown apartment. But she thinks wherever they live, they will still venture out.

Jie Liang said she plans to buy them some pepper spray or a Taser. In the meantime, she thinks her parents will feel much more at ease if the man who attacked her dad is found and prosecuted.

She is asking for anyone who might have video of the man – who was wearing the royal blue beanie, gray pants and a gray shirt – to hand it over to police. She also hopes police will be able to collect some DNA from the beanie and test it to see if it matches someone already in their criminal database.

“They are scarred for life,” Jie Liang said of her parents. “They will be afraid to go around, to hop on an empty bus or on a MAX train that doesn’t have many people. They will still want to do it, but they will do it with fear.”

– Aimee Green covers breaking news and the justice system. Reach her at 503-294-5119, agreen@oregonian.com or @o_aimee.

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