This photo provided by the Bloomington Police Department shows Billie Davis (Bloomington Police Department via AP)
A woman from Indiana has been given a sentence for attacking an 18-year-old student of Indiana University by stabbing them in the head with a folding knife between seven and 10 times while they were on a bus heading to school, solely because of the victim’s Asian background.
Billie Davis, aged 57, has been handed a six-year prison term by a federal court, along with three years of supervised release, for committing a hate crime at a federal level. Davis admitted guilt in September for deliberately causing harm to the victim with a knife due to the victim being of Chinese descent, as stated in a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The incident occurred on January 11, 2023. Davis carried out the attack on the 18-year-old student while they were preparing to disembark from the bus. The victim left the bus, yelling in agony from the injuries inflicted.
After the attack, Davis sat back down on the bus, where she remained until other passengers confronted her, and she got off the bus. But she was eventually arrested after a witness followed her and told police her whereabouts, authorities said.
The victim suffered serious wounds and cuts that required sutures and staples to heal, officials said.
In police custody, Davis described the victim to investigators as “some Asian f—ing c—,” prosecutors said. Davis told police she did it for her “being Chinese,” and this “would be one less person to blow up our country.”
In the press release, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division upbraided the defendant.
“Racially motivated violence has no place in our society,” Clarke said. “This defendant targeted a young woman, who was simply riding a public bus to school, solely because she was Chinese. The sentence imposed for these vicious hate crimes should send a strong message that perpetrators of hate-fueled violence will be held accountable. The Justice Department is steadfast in its commitment to investigating and prosecuting hate crimes wherever they occur in our country.”
James Wimbush, the vice president for diversity, equity, and multicultural affairs at Indiana University, said shortly after the attack that the case was a sad reminder that “anti-Asian hate is real and can have painful impacts on individuals and our community.”
“No one should face harassment or violence due to their background, ethnicity or heritage,” he said. “Instead, the Bloomington and IU communities are stronger because of the vast diversity of identities and perspectives that make up our campus and community culture. To our Asian and Asian American friends, colleagues, students, and neighbors, we stand firmly with you.”
The university’s Asian Culture Center held an emergency meeting. Some students expressed concerns for their safety. Others recalled times they witnessed or experienced racial discrimination while riding the bus.
“We should not be fearing for our lives on public transportation,” the center said in a statement. “Taking the bus should not feel dangerous. The fact that the perpetrator announced that race was the motivation for her attack sends a jolt through our Asian community.”
Law&Crime reported in May 2023 that state charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery by means of a deadly weapon were dismissed as Davis faced the federal hate crime charge.
The defendant’s son his mother suffers from severe mental illness, he said in an email to a Herald-Times reporter.
