A 21-year-old Texan pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges after he brutally attacked and blamed an Asian family he believed to be Chinese for the Covid-19 pandemic, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Jose Gomez III saw a Burmese family with three young children enter a Sam’s Club in Midland, Texas on the evening of March 14, 2020, and, believing them to be Chinese, followed them into the store, according to a complaint criminal.
Gomez grabbed kitchen knives that were sold at the store and attacked the family, cutting the father and a child who was then 6 years old, according to the complaint. He also stabbed an employee in the leg after trying to intervene, the complaint added.