TUSTIN — On April 11 at approximately 10:42 a.m., Tustin police officers were dispatched to the 1600 block of Valencia Avenue regarding a possible assault and battery.
Officers contacted the victim and confirmed she had been assaulted by the suspect.
The victim, who is of Korean and Puerto Rican descent, informed officers the suspect made racial comments and punched her in the stomach. During the altercation at Tustin Legacy Skatepark, the victim pepper-sprayed the suspect. The suspect fled the scene prior to the officers arrival.
The suspect was later located by officers and taken into custody without incident. The suspect has been identified as Jauhar Tajuddin Shuaib, a 42-year-old resident of Irvine.
Shuaib was arrested and booked into Orange County Jail for the following charges:
CPC 422.6(a): Hate crime/assault based in whole or in part on the victim’s race;
CPC 245(a)(4): Assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury;
CPC 647.6(a)(2): Sexually motivated annoyance;
CPC 241.2(a): Assault in a public park;
CPC 653b(a): Loitering about a place where children congregate;
CPC 415(1): Disturbing the peace;
TMC 7112(h): Abusive or profane language prohibited.
If anyone has any information or video regarding this incident or any unreported crimes that may be related to Shuaib, contact Detective Eric Haug at (714) 573-3246.
The victim, Jenna Dupuy, gave the following account on Instagram:
“I never thought anything like this would happen to someone I know, much less me. Yesterday I was at the Tustin Legacy Skatepark when I was attacked by a man who called me a ‘commie bitch,’ ‘North Korean whore,’ and a ‘nuclear terrorist,’ along with a number of other homophobic, racist, and sexist slurs. He tore my shirt off and I had to be given clothes by a stranger. He chip-fractured my left shoulder, refractured my ankle, gave me a concussion, and left me with bruises, scratches, and pepper-spray burns all over my face and body. I am out of the hospital and I should make a full recovery, but I have some things to say.
“This assault was targeted. This man harassed me over the course of three hours by making sexual comments about me and the fact that I was Asian. He repeatedly asked for my number, how old I was, and where ‘I was from.’ He attacked me because I stood up for another girl who he was trying to harass.
“I say these things because although I was helped by a number of kind people, this should never have happened. This man has made many appearances at the skatepark and no one has stopped him. He made remarks to me and many others and no one stopped him, he threatened me with physical violence and no one stopped him. I maced him AND he still was able to attack me. It was only after I sustained injuries that people began to physically intervene. I should have been protected better. Asian bodies need to be protected better.
“This incident was motivated by hate against my race + gender. It was the product of a government’s propaganda against my mother’s country and her heritage. It’s the product of anti-Communism, yellow peril/yellow fever. I’d rather bear this violence than my halmoni. But that’s not how pain and hate works. And I know that the hate that touched me yesterday touches my community, and reaches every other community of minorities in the U.S.
“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: when you make jokes about the history of my country, when white supremacists feel entitled to meddle in the politics of MY country after dividing it in two, leveling it with bombs, and enslaving and fetishizing its women, this is the result.”
A Go Fund Me page titled “Cover Jenna’s Medical Bills and Fund Self-Defense” has raised more than $12,500, surpassing the goal of $10,000.
The organizer of the fundraiser, Corey LoDuca, described the “targeted anti-Asian and misogynistic hate crime” and the injuries suffered by Dupuy and the other victim. “Your monetary support will go towards their hospital bills and funding a community self-defense class. Jenna is working closely with Tustin Mayor Leticia Clark to make self-defense training accessible. It is imperative that AAPI people learn self-defense as anti-Asian hate crimes have increased exponentially as a result of state-sanctioned and media-perpetuated sinophobia to scapegoat China for the U.S.’s failure to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Orange County in particular has been a site of racist attacks and Asian Americans are at risk every single day. Our communities’ complacency for anti-Asian violence and the dehumanization/fetishization of Asian diasporic peoples who are affected by patriarchal violence allowed this attack to happen.”
In an update on April 21, LoDuca said, “Not only have we met our fundraising goal, but we have SURPASSED it! Your support is beyond appreciated and means the world to us. Jenna’s medical bills have been paid for and the funds raised will make a huge difference for their family, by reducing the financial stress of trauma therapy’s cost.
“Additionally, these funds will empower our community through comprehensive self-defense training, arming our most vulnerable against the very racist, misogynistic violence that was perpetrated against Jenna. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”