US man sentenced to 25 years over attack on Asian family he blamed for Covid-19 pandemic

Jose Gomez III used a knife to slash Bawi Cung and his six- and two-year-old sons inside a Texas supermarket in 2020

Violence against Asian-Americans has increased across the US during the coronavirus pandemic

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Bawi Cung with his children at his home in Texas. File photo: Bawi Cung via AP

Published: 11:15am, 6 Aug 2022

A Texas man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for attacking an Asian family in 2020 because he thought they were Chinese and therefore responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, according to federal court records.

Jose Gomez III, 21, of Midland, Texas, was sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty to three counts of committing a hate crime.

When pleading guilty in March, Gomez admitted that he used a knife to slash Bawi Cung and his six- and two-year-old sons inside a Sam’s Club supermarket in Midland because he believed they were Chinese and spreading the coronavirus. Bawi Cung is from Myanmar.

The March 2020 attack occurred as Asians faced verbal harassment and physical assaults across the United States after the virus began spreading nationwide.

Gomez did not know the family when he followed them inside the store, federal authorities said in a statement. He followed them for several minutes because he perceived them to be a “threat” because they were “from the country who started spreading that disease around,” according to the statement.