A Texas man admitted to performing hate crimes against an Asian family that he feels is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Wednesday, 21-year-old Jose Gomez III admitted to cutting an Asian customer, the customer’s 6-year-old child and Sam’s Club employee during an incident on March 14, 2020. NBC News reports Gomez went up to the family, who he believed was Chinese but was actually Burmese, telling them they were “from the country who started spreading that disease around.”
Suddenly, Gomez grabbed a steak knife from the store and bent the blade, with the sharp edge facing out, around his fist so he could punch and cut at the same time. He then turned his focus to the man’s two children, 6 and 2, and cut the older child’s face, just “millimeters from” the boy’s eye.
A white Sam’s Club intervened and jumped to the family’s defense. He suffered several cut wounds. In a statement, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said the incident was racially motivated.
“An Asian family was shopping when the defendant brutally attacked them because of their race and because he blamed them for the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Clarke. “Racially motivated hate crimes targeting the Asian American community are on the rise and have no place in our society today. “
