Indiana woman charged with hate crime for attack on Asian student

The Indiana University campus in Bloomington, Indiana is seen on Oct. 27, 2019. Photo: Marlena Sloss for the Washington Post via Getty Images

A federal grand jury has indicted an Indiana woman on a hate crime charge after she allegedly stabbed a college student of Chinese descent in January, the Department of Justice announced.

Driving the news: Billie R. Davis, 56 of Bloomington, is accused of carrying out the "racially motivated" attack “because of the victim’s race and national origin,” per the DOJ.

Catch up quick: Davis allegedly stabbed an 18-year-old Indiana University student multiple times in the head while the student was waiting for bus doors to open.

  • Footage that captured the attack showed that Davis and the victim had no interaction prior to the stabbing, police said at the time.
  • Davis then told police she had targeted the student because of their ethnicity, according to court documents filed after her arrest.
  • In addition to the federal hate crime charge, Davis was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery, and battery by means of a deadly weapon shortly after the incident.

The big picture: The attack happened amid a rising number of anti-Asian hate crimes and incidents across the U.S.

  • Stop AAPI Hate documented more than 11,400 anti-AAPI hate incidents in a two-year period between March 2020 and March 2022.

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