Asian American woman brutally beaten in NYC says she forgives attacker

The Asian American woman whose brutal, caught-on-camera beatdown in Manhattan shocked the nation says she forgives her homeless attacker — but she has yet to heal emotionally.

“I prayed for him because I felt he needed prayers,” Vilma Kari, 65, told “Good Morning America” Thursday morning. “That’s the only thing I could do for him in the hope that maybe someday he reform[s] or he finds the right medicine, whatever needed.” Kari was on her way to church on March 29 when her assailant, Brandon Elliot, shoved her to the ground and kicked her in the head several times outside 360 W. 43rd St. Video of the incident showed staff inside the building doing nothing to intervene.