Who is Greg Chew? Derrick Yearby charged for assaulting former San Francisco commissioner

On Sunday, August 7, San Francisco Police announced that they had arrested Derrick Yearby, the man behind the racist attack against longtime public servant Greg Chew. Yearby was sent to the San Francisco County Jail following his arrest.

A former immigrant rights commissioner, Gregory 'Greg' Chew has served in multiple city commissions and is an important leader of the Asian-American community of San Francisco.

Greg Chew claimed that he was attacked while walking down Folsom and Third Streets on the Tuesday, August 2, when an assailant appeared on a bicycle and began punching him out of nowhere. He suffered a swollen eye and broken left shoulder from the assault.

Kathryn Winters, the Public Information Officer at the San Francisco Police Department, told the press that it was fortunate that the police had a good amount of photo and video evidence for the incident, which enabled the prompt arrest.

She said:

"Officers in this incident were able to locate and identify this suspect fairly quickly. So some great officers out there in the field doing good police work"

Following the incident, Greg Chew reported that nothing was stolen, giving rise to speculations that this is a racist hate crime. However, Yearby has not yet been charged with the same. Investigators are looking further into the matter.

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Greg Chew was the victim of an unprovoked attack

In a press release issued on Sunday, the San Francisco Police Department said officers assigned to Southern Station responded on August 2 after receiving a report of an aggravated assault.

Greg Chew informed authorities that he had been struck and knocked to the ground by an unidentified suspect. He also recalled how he hit the pavement and blacked out after the assault, but later found both his wallet and cell phone still in his pockets. He further added that his attacker didn't say anything to him and didn't rob him.

The office of Supervisor Matt Dorsey released a press statement that said:

"There should be no place in San Francisco for this kind of violence, which in the last couple of years has been disproportionately targeting seniors in our AAPI communities."

He further noted in the statement that SF police had reported a 567% increase in hate crimes against Anti-Asians in 2021 alone.

According to Dorsey's office, Yearby was taken to the San Francisco County Jail. where he is being detained on suspicion of aggravated battery resulting in serious bodily injury, assault with force likely to result in great bodily injury, elder abuse, and enhancement of great bodily injury.