87-year-old grandfather has decided to move back to China after being attacked in San Francisco three different times

Photo: Huang Weijiang via Sing Tao Daily

Rongxin Liao, an 87-year-old grandfather, has made the decision to move back to China after being attacked three different times in San Francisco.

According to Sing Tao Daily, Rongxin was first attacked seven years ago when he was on his way to breakfast in the Tenderloin Disctrict. He was beaten on the street and woke up in the emergency room at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital with a fractured hand and eight stitches. Because he had little recollection of what happened to him, the case was dropped.

The second attack was caught on video which then went viral on social media. On February 20, 2020, Rongxin was sitting in his seated walker and waiting for the bus in the Tenderloin District when someone ran up to him and kicked him out of his walker. Rongxin was found bleeding profusely on the sidewalk and required six stitches to his head. The 22-year-old attacker, Eric Ramos-Hernandez, only served seven months in jail before he was admitted to Mental Health Diversion, an at-home treatment program for those with serious mental illness.

The third and most recent attack happened on October 1, 2023 when Rongxin was walking in front of Walgreens near Market Street and 4th Street. Someone approached him and beat him until his face was covered in blood and his eyes were swollen. A Walgreens employee called the police who rushed to the scene and arrested the attacker.

“It’s too dangerous here,” Rongxin’s son, Jing Liao said in Cantonese to The San Francisco Standard. “[The] public safety situation in San Francisco has become worse and worse.”

“I don’t want to be a drag to my son here,” Rongxin told Sing Tao Daily. “I don’t want him to worry about me all the time.”

Rongxin became a naturalized U.S. citizen but will give up his American citizenship and restore his Chinese citizenship once he returns to China, according to Sing Tao Daily.