Man Admits Attacking Asian Family, Including 6-year-Old, Blaming Them For COVID-19

A Texas man who attacked an Asian family, accusing them of starting the COVID-19 pandemic, pleaded guilty to hate crime charges.

Jose Gomez III, a 21-year-old man from Midland, Texas, admitted to attacking a Burmese family with young children at Sam’s Club Warehouse on March 14, 2020, believing them to be responsible for the pandemic, The Department of Justice said in a news release Wednesday.

Gomez, who pleaded guilty to three counts of hate crime, said he targetted the family because he thought they were from China, the country that he believes "started spreading that disease around."

Before attacking the group of strangers, Gomez followed them inside the store for some time because he considered them a "threat." He took a serrated steak knife from the store and punched the father, identified only by his initials, B.C.

Gomez then left the scene and came back with another eight-inch knife to attack the man's two children aged six and two, seated in the front basket of a shopping cart. He slashed the face of the six-year-old and stabbed an employee who intervened trying to stop him from further assaulting the family.

While he was being held down on the ground, Gomez kept yelling "Get out of America!" to the family, prosecutors said.

In the guilty plea, Gomez admitted that he attempted to kill the 6-year-old child and attacked the store employee because he was preventing him from killing the child.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of hate crimes reported has drastically increased. Asian Americans have been targeted and blamed for the spread of COVID-19. According to reports published by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, anti-Asian hate crime has increased by 339 % in 2021, compared to the year before.

"Racially motivated hate crimes targeting the Asian American community are on the rise and have no place in our society today. All people deserve to feel safe and secure living in their communities, regardless of race, color, or national origin," said Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

"The defendant violently and horrifically attacked an unsuspecting innocent family because of how they looked and where he thought they came from," U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff of the Western District of Texas said. "This type of hate-based violence has no place in our society and will not be tolerated," C. Hoff added.

Gomez has been in federal custody since August 2021, CNN reported. If convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of life in prison for each offense and a fine of $250,000.