A man in Texas was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to attacking an Asian American family.
The Department of Justice said in a statement that Jose Gomez attacked the family of three at a Sam's Club in Texas because he assumed they were Chinese and that they were spreading the disease around.
He admitted to committing a hate crime.
He admitted in his plea that he had followed a father and his two children around the store. He punched the father in the face after bending the blade so that the sharp part of the knife was facing out.
The 6-year-old was slashed in the face by Gomez. He had a blade enter close to his right eye, split his right ear, and cut around the back of his skull.
He admitted in his plea that he wanted to kill the boy and that he attacked the store employee who was trying to stop him.
Gomez yelled at the family to leave America while he was being held down.
There have been many racist attacks on Asian people in the last few years. At the time, Donald Trump referred to the coronaviruses as a "China virus", stoking racist and xenophobic fears, as some of the victims were presumed to be Chinese.
"Pandemic-driven and racially-motivated acts of violence are deplorable crimes, and the Justice Department stands ready to use our hate crimes laws to hold perpetrators accountable," according to the statement announcing Gomez's sentence. Asian Americans have been the target of hate crimes during the Pandemic. All people should feel safe and secure in their communities.
The official statistics on hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are not always accurate. There were more than 10,000 reported hate incidents against AAPI people between March 2020 and December 2021.
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