Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Attacking Asian Family He Blamed for Coronavirus

A Texas man who admitted to attacking an Asian family with a knife while shouting "get out of America" because he believed they were responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic could face life in prison on hate crime charges.

Jose Gomez III, of Midland, Texas, pleaded guilty to three counts of committing a hate crime for singling out and using a knife to injure the family who was out shopping, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday. The prosecution of Gomez, 21, follows a recent rise in anti-Asian violence that's accompanied the pandemic. The number of anti-Asian hate crimes increased to 279 in 2020, up from 161 in 2019, according to FBI statistics.

"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," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement. "Racially motivated hate crimes targeting the Asian American community are on the rise and have no place in our society today."

The incident occurred at a Sam's Club warehouse in Midland, Texas, on March 14, 2020, just as the pandemic, which originated in China, was taking hold in the U.S.

The Justice Department, citing court documents, gave the following version of events: After entering the store, Gomez saw the family and thought they were Chinese. He followed the unidentified family through the store, perceiving them as a "threat" because they were "from the country who started spreading that disease around."

Gomez stopped following the family to go find a serrated steak knife in the store, bending the blade so that its sharp edges faced outward when he held the handle in his fist, according to the department. He then returned to the family and punched the father in the face, cutting him with the bent knife.

Gomez left to go find an 8-inch knife from the store, according to the department. He returned and attacked the man's two children, then aged 6 and 2, seated in the front basket of a shopping cart. Gomez slashed the face of the 6-year-old with the blade, coming within millimeters of the child's right eye and splitting his right ear and wrapping around the back of his skull, according to the department.

A store employee attempted to intervene, but Gomez stabbed the employee as well. As Gomez was held down on the ground, he yelled "get out of America" at the family.

According to the department, Gomez later admitted that he thought the family was Chinese and was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. He also admitted to attempting to kill the 6-year-old-child and attacked the store employee who intervened.

In addition to a maximum sentence of life in prison, Gomez also faces a $250,000 fine for each of the three hate crime offenses, according to the department.

Raymond Fivecoat, attorney for Gomez, declined comment to Newsweek, citing his client's pending sentencing.