Hate Crimes Case Examples

Robert Bowers was charged with 44 federal counts, including obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death for an attack that occurred on the Sabbath at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in October 2018. On January 29, 2019, a federal grand jury sitting in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania charged Bowers with additional federal hate crimes and firearms offenses for his conduct during the shootings. According to the indictment, the shootings occurred on October 27, 2018, when Bowers entered the Tree of Life Synagogue with multiple firearms and stated his desire to “kill Jews.” Bowers killed eleven worshippers, and injured two other members of the congregations and five law enforcement officers. Bowers faces a maximum possible penalty of life without parole. The additional charges can also result in a sentence of death. If the Attorney General determines the circumstances of these offenses justify seeking the death penalty, the Department of Justice must file a notice with the court at a reasonable time before the trial begins.

Additional Charges Filed: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdpa/pr/additional-charges-filed-tree-life-synagogue-shooting-0

A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Ohio charged an Ohio man with three federal charges in connection with his plan to attack a synagogue in the Toledo area.

The three-count indictment charges the defendant with attempting to provide material support to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), attempting to commit a hate crime, and possessing firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence.

According to court documents, the defendant drew law enforcement’s attention in 2018 with social media posts of weapons and messages supportive of ISIS, as well as posting a photograph originally distributed by ISIS. That online activity led to multiple interactions between him and undercover FBI agents, during which the defendant stated his support for violent attacks and operations. For example, he communicated to the undercover agent his admiration for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting that occurred in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in October 2018. Additionally, the defendant discussed conducting a mass shooting at a synagogue with the undercover agent. He identified two synagogues as potential targets, discussed the types of weapons he believed would be able to inflict mass casualties, and stated he wanted to kill a rabbi. He wrote the name and address of the synagogue he selected and showed the undercover agent photos of the inside. He was arrested after he accepted two semi-automatic rifles the undercover agent told him he had purchased for the attack. The weapons were rendered inoperable by law enforcement officers, so they posed no danger to the public.

Indictment:  https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ohio-man-indicted-attempting-provide-material-support-isis-and-attempting-commit-violent-hate

Gregory A. Bush, 51, has been charged with federal hate crimes and firearm violations for the October 24, 2018, murder of an African-American man and woman and the attempted murder of a third person at a Kroger grocery store in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. The indictment charges Bush with committing these crimes of violence because of the victims’ race and color. Bush is scheduled to appear in court on January 15, 2019. If found guilty, the maximum charges that Bush could face are life imprisonment or the death penalty."

Indictment: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/kroger-shooting-suspect-charged-federal-hate-crimes-and-firearm-offenses

A Louisiana man pled guilty to shooting three young African-American men because of their race as the men tried to get out of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, the three African-American men walked through a neighborhood to reach a ferry landing used as an evacuation point. When they crossed a barricade of fallen trees the defendant and other neighbors built to block their streets, the defendant shot and wounded all three men. After the shooting, the defendant warned one of his neighbors that "anything coming up this street darker than a brown paper bag is getting shot."

Guilty Plea: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/new-orleans-man-pleads-guilty-hate-crime-shooting-three-african-american-men-attempting

A Texas man was sentenced to 24 years in prison for burning down the Victoria Islamic Center in January 2017. A week before the fire, the defendant broke into the mosque. The search of the defendant's home found stolen property from the mosque. A witness who was with the defendant on the night of the fire described how he used a lighter to set papers on fire inside the mosque and how excited he was to see the mosque in flames minutes after. The witness testified that the defendant said he burned down the mosque because he wanted to "send a message."

Sentencing: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/texas-man-sentenced-almost-25-years-hate-crime-burning-down-mosque-victoria-texas

An Iowa man was convicted of first-degree murder under Iowa law for his role in kidnapping, torture, and execution of a gender-fluid high school student in Burlington, Iowa in March 2016. Last year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore authorized a federal hate-crimes prosecutor from the Civil Rights Division to be cross-designated as a Special Assistant County Attorney to assist with the prosecutions of both defendants in this case in the Iowa courts. The evidence established that the defendants pulled up next to the victim, who was dressed in women’s clothing and presenting as female and flirted with him. They convinced the victim to get in the car with them and took him to a location the defendants often went to have sex with young women. The physical evidence showed the defendants knocked the victim unconscious, gagged him, and wrapped a plastic bag around his head. The defendants then took the victim to an alley, shot him twice in the chest, and doused his body in bleach to destroy physical evidence.

Conviction: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/man-convicted-first-degree-murder-joint-kidnapping-torture-and-execution-gender-fluid-teen

A Florida man was sentenced to four years in prison, three years supervised release and $1,800 in restitution for obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by threatening, via phone, to detonate a bomb at a mosque in Pembroke Pines, Florida. During the plea hearing, the defendant admitted the he called Jamaat Ul Muttaqeen Mosque of Pembroke Pines and left a voicemail message filled with hate and profanity denigrating Islam and threatening to blow up the mosque. Specifically, the defendant admitted to stating in the voicemail that he had a detonator, that he was “going to blow your…temple up," and that "you guys are all going to be up in flames after I’m done with you."

Sentencing: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/south-florida-man-sentenced-prison-hate-crime-threatening-blow-mosque

A Kansas man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the February 2017 killing of an Indian national and for the shooting of two other men. Earlier this year, the defendant plead guilty to hate crimes, firearm offenses, attempted murder, and murder charges related to the death and injuries of the three victims. According to the plea agreement, the defendant approached the victims, demanding to know how they entered the country, and called one victim a “terrorist.” The defendant later returned to the bar with a gun and shot two victims, killing one and injuring the other. At the defendant’s guilty-plea hearing, he admitted that he targeted and shot two of the Indian National victims because of their race, color, and national origin and that he shot the third victim in an attempt to flee the crime scene.

Sentencing: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/kansas-man-sentenced-life-prison-without-parole-racially-motivated-shooting-olathe-bar

A federal grand jury in New Orleans, Louisiana indicted four Amite residents for six counts of human trafficking and hate crimes for abusing a family member with disabilities. In addition to alleging violations of forced labor, sex trafficking and fair housing statutes, the indictment charges one defendant with a hate crime for shooting the victim with a BB gun because of her disability. The hate crime charge carries of maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment.

Indictment: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/amite-residents-charged-civil-rights-crimes-abusing-family-member-disabilities

A man from Ohio, who in August 2017 participated in a white nationalist rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia, was indicted by a federal grand jury on a total of 30 hate crime charges. The indictment alleges that the defendant plowed his car into a crowd of people protesting the rally, resulting in the death of one woman and injury to dozens of other victims. The defendant attended the rally where, according to the indictment, he chanted and expressed white supremacist and anti-Semitic views.

Indictment: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ohio-man-charged-federal-hate-crimes-related-august-2017-rally-charlottesville

Four Texas men were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years for assaulting victims because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. In the winter of 2017, the defendants used a dating app for gay men to arrange a meeting at the victim’s home. Upon arriving at the home, the defendants physically and verbally assaulted victims, restraining them with tape and yelling slurs about the victim’s sexual orientation. The defendants entered carrying a firearm and stole the victim’s property, including his motor vehicle.

Sentencing: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/texas-man-sentenced-10-years-prison-hate-crime-assault-based-victim-s-sexual-orientation

Sentencing: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-texas-men-sentenced-20-and-15-years-prison-hate-crime-assault-based-victim-s-sexual

Three men from Los Angeles, California, pled guilty to federal civil rights and racketeering charges for participating in a firebombing of African-American residences in a public housing development on May 11, 2014. The defendants, who were members of a Hispanic street gang, threw Molotov cocktails into apartments occupied by African-American families. The defendants admitted that they targeted the apartments because of the occupants’ race and color with the intent to force the victims to move away.

Guilty Plea: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/three-gang-members-agree-plead-guilty-federal-hate-crime-charges-related-firebombing-african