Staff Reports
A guy is facing federal charges for allegedly assaulting an Asian student in Cincinnati, Ohio, primarily because of his ethnicity.
According to a Department of Justice news release, Darrin Johnson, 26, was indicted this week by a grand jury on federal hate crime charges arising from a 2021 incident in which he reportedly assaulted an Asian victim close to the University of Cincinnati campus.
The DOJ claims that during the attack, Johnson, a Black man, urged the victim to “go back to your country”
Johnson reportedly said, “You brought the kung flu here,” “You’re going to die for bringing it.”
In the course of the assault, Johnson is accused of making death threats against the victim. According to the court papers, Johnson struck the victim in the head, forcing him to fall and smash his head on the bumper of a parked vehicle.
The victim had several wounds, including facial lacerations and a concussion.
In October 2021, Johnson entered a guilty plea to misdemeanour assault and criminal intimidation and received a one-year prison term.
If found guilty in federal court, Johnson could spend up to 10 years behind bars.
Since the commencement of the coronavirus epidemic, 9,000 anti-Asian hate crimes have been registered, according to a study from Stop AAPI Hate that was published last year.
In addition, New York City police reported earlier this year that hate crimes against Asians would increase by 343% in 2021.
The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which President Biden signed into law in 2021, established a new post in the Department of Justice to hasten the assessment of suspected COVID-19-related hate crimes that are reported to federal, state, or local authorities.
The measure also increased efforts to improve local and state-level accessibility for reporting hate crimes.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Fox News.
