A Man In A Car Hit-And-Run Vehicle In Montebello
The Los Angeles Times. ｜ 2025-05-14

A Japanese American professor and Viet Nam veteran was hit by a car last month in Montebello city, using more racial insult language against Chinese. The police are investigating the incident in the direction of a potential hate crime.

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A screenshot of the story.

Aki Maehara, 71-year-old Asian-American history professor, was interviewed on Monday and said that his elbow, neck, cheekbone, jaw, hip and waist were seriously injured.

On 29 April, at about 10 p.m., when he was riding an electric bike on Merle Drive street, not far from his home, the rear vehicle lighted his route. When he looked back, he found a sedan coming at high speed.

“I tried to turn to the road edge in search of a space of refuge, and then I was blown away.” Before the crash, he heard shouting dirty words and racial insults against the Chinese.

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After sliding a few metres on the lawn, he stopped on a brick wall, and he heard a man's voice shouting, "Go back..." with dirty words and racist words, and then he ran away in a hit-and-run vehicle: "It's suspicious, because I'm wearing a full helmet, and no one can see my face, and how do they judge me as Asian?"

Owing to his inability to cover the cost of the ambulance, he contacted friends to take him to Long Beach Veterans Hospital.

Montebello's police said that they had taken surveillance footage of the surrounding residents, but they have yet to find a picture of the incident. Although no one has been arrested, the formerly known to have locked up the suspect and informed the police of his name. He revealed that he had been harassed on several occasions because he had taught “The History of Racism in the United States” at the Community College in East Los Angeles.

“At long time ago, there was a demonstration outside the class at East Los Angeles College, and the Latin Republicans protested against my teaching at the Long Beach branch of California State University, and the Klan even broke into the classroom while I was teaching Vietnam History. This was not the first time I was attacked for my identity.”

The police are still pursuing the driver of the incident.