Rachel Swan

April 29, 2021

The president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, an outspoken public safety advocate, said he was attacked Thursday afternoon while walking downtown to run an errand, then visit the home of an assault victim.

Carl Chan said he was on Broadway and 8th Street, near a Starbucks coffee shop, when someone came up from behind and struck him in the head while yelling a derogatory word. He fell to the pavement, landing on his hands and skinning his knee. Chan believes he briefly blacked out.

As he regained consciousness, he saw the man walking away and managed to take pictures with his cell phone, which helped police make an arrest, he said.

Oakland Police Captain Bobby Hookfin, the commander for Area 1 — which includes downtown, Chinatown, and West Oakland — said he was in a meeting when he received several texts from watch commanders reporting the attack.

"Carl — as tough as he is — he was able to take pictures of this guy,” Hoofkin said.

Hookfin said that officers canvassing the area located a suspect based on Chan’s cellphone photos, Once officers arrested the suspect, Hookfin directed his watch commander to have the suspect interviewed right away, rather than sending him to Santa Rita Jail.

“So we can figure out exactly what happened, and exactly what charges to file,” Hookfin said. “Is this a hate crime? We don’t know. But we need to find out right now.”

Hookfin and other police command staff often accompanied Chan on walks through Chinatown during late February and throughout March, when merchants were rallying for more protection from robberies and assaults.

After the attack, Chan said he got help from a nearby restaurant owner, who brought him into the building and gave him water.

“I knew I had to get up,” Chan said an hour after the incident later, in a phone interview from the Chamber office on 9th Street.

In recent weeks, Chan became a frequent, visible presence on television news, decrying a surge in crimes of opportunity in downtown Oakland, many of them targeting Asian senior citizens. He fears he may have been singled out because of his media appearances.

“I refuse to go down,” he told The Chronicle on Thursday. “My adrenaline is pumping.”