Indiana woman sentenced to federal prison for stabbing teen because she was of Chinese descent

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (TCN) -- A 57-year-old woman will spend less than a decade behind bars for stabbing an 18-year-old college student on a public bus because "she was of Chinese descent and so that there was 'one less enemy.'"

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana announced Dec. 11 that Billie Davis pleaded guilty to willfully causing bodily injury to a victim because of her nationality. Davis received a federal prison sentence of six years followed by three years of supervised release for the hate crime.

According to an initial press release from the Bloomington Police Department, on Jan. 11, 2023, officers responded to a report of an assault that had occurred on a Bloomington Transit bus. Prosecutors said Davis boarded and sat behind the victim, a student enrolled at Indiana University at Bloomington. As the student went to exit the bus, Davis reportedly retrieved a folding knife from her pocket and "stabbed the student in the head approximately seven to 10 times."

Federal prosecutors said the victim left the bus "screaming in pain." She sustained numerous stab wounds and lacerations and required medical sutures and staples.

Davis reportedly sat down on the bus following the stabbing and stayed there until other passengers confronted her. After exiting the bus, another passenger allegedly approached her, and the defendant "used racist slurs when referring to the victim and claimed the victim posed a threat to the bus because she was Asian."

Bloomington Police apprehended Davis, and while speaking with officers, she referred to the victim as "some Asian f---ing c--t." Davis also allegedly claimed she attacked the student because it "would be one less person to blow up our country."

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said, "Racially motivated violence has no place in our society. This defendant targeted a young woman, who was simply riding a public bus to school, solely because she was Chinese."

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