The Cung family suffered severe wounds in the 2020 hate-fueled attac.
The man who attacked an Burmese American father and his two children at a Sam's Club in Texas pleaded guilty to the hate crime.
Jose Gomez III, 21, of Midland, Texas, pleaded guilty to three hate-crime counts from his attack on Bawi Cung and his son at a Midland Sam’s Club, according to a Justice Department statement. He could be sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $250,000.
In court documents, Gomez admitted following the family into the store, taking a knife from a store display and slashing Cung, his 6-year-old son and a store employee who tried to intervene. Gomez said he blamed China for the COVID-19 pandemic and mistook the Burmese family for Chinese. He said he perceived the family to be a “threat” as they were “from the country who started spreading that disease around.”
The attack on the Cung family was one of the first indications of the severity of the impact of Donald Trump's reckless use of the racist terms, "Wuhan Virus," "China Virus," and "Kung Flu" in referring to the coronavirus that began spreading throughout the world in 2020.
Gomez pleaded guilty to three counts of committing a hate crime for attacking the Burmese American family he believed was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic because he believed them to be Chinese.
Gomez faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and for each offense, a $250,000 fine.
REPORT HATE CRIMES: The FBI encourages people who have been victims or witnessed a hate crime to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or share the report to Stop AAPI Hate.
According to documents filed in connection with the plea, Gomez entered a Sam’s Club Warehouse in Midland, Texas, behind the Cung family on March 14, 2020. Gomez had never seen the family before and believed they were Chinese. Gomez followed the Asian family in the store for several minutes because he perceived them to be a “threat” as they were “from the country who started spreading that disease around.”
Gomez then momentarily left the family to find a serrated steak knife in the store. Gomez bent the blade so that when he held the handle in his fist, the blade rested against his knuckles, sharp-edge facing outward. Gomez returned to the Asian family and punched Cung in the face, cutting him. Gomez then left the scene, only to retrieve an eight-inch knife from the store.
When Gomez returned, he abruptly went after Cung’s two young children – then aged 6 and 2 years old – who were seated in the front basket of the shopping cart. Gomez slashed open the face of the then-6-year-old child. The blade entered millimeters from the son's right eye, split his right ear, and wrapped around to the back of his skull.
Gomez also stabbed a Sam’s Club employee, Zach Owen, who intervened to stop Gomez from further assaulting the Cung family. While being held down on the ground, Gomez yelled at the Cung family, “Get out of America!”
Gomez admitted after his attack that he believed the Cung family was Chinese and he blamed them for the COVID-19 pandemic. Gomez further admitted he had attempted to kill the 6-year-old child. Gomez also admitted he had attacked the store employee because Gomez wanted to kill the 6-year-old child and the store employee was preventing him from doing so.
In an interview last year, Cung told The Associated Press he could not walk through any store after the attack without constantly looking in all directions. His son, who now can’t move one eyebrow, is afraid to sleep alone, he said.
Cung said he was not sure what would have happened had Owen not intervened. “Maybe I might kill him. Maybe he might kill all of my family. I don’t know,” Cung said. “God protected my family. God sent Zach to protect my family right there at the right time.”
“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 Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Since the pandemic began two years ago, there have been over 10,000 hate incidents, according to Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit collecting the reports. Anti-Asian attacks
Last year President Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law, which seeks to make reporting hate crimes more accessible and expedite the Justice Department's review of hate crimes, with particular emphasis on hate crimes against Asian Americans.
“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,” Clarke said.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.
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