Editor’s Note: This story includes mention of potentially triggering situations, such as racism and violence.
Billie Davis, 57, of Bloomington, was sentenced to six years in federal prison for willfully causing bodily injury to a victim with a knife, committing a federal hate crime. The sentencing came after she pled guilty Sept. 17 to a violation of the Hate Crime Act in a targeted attack due to the victim being of Chinese descent.
The six-year sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Indiana.
The incident occurred Jan. 11, 2023, when the victim, an 18-year-old woman, was riding a Bloomington Transit bus. According to the press release, Davis sat behind the victim after she boarded the bus. When the victim stood to exit the bus, Davis reached for a folding knife in her pocket and stabbed the victim in the head approximately seven to 10 times.
The attack caused the victim to leave the bus screaming in pain, resulting in multiple stab wounds and cuts. Davis sat back down on the bus until other passengers confronted her. When she left the bus, another passenger followed and confronted her. Davis described the victim using racist slurs and claimed the victim posed a threat to the bus because she was Asian.
Davis was arrested by the Bloomington Police Department and described the victim as using explicit language. She told police she attacked the victim because she was of Chinese descent and so that there would be “one less enemy,” according to the press release.
“This defendant targeted a young woman, who was simply riding a public bus to school, solely because she was Chinese,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the press release. “The sentence imposed for these vicious hate crimes should send a strong message that perpetrators of hate-fueled violence will be held accountable.”
The FBI Indianapolis Field Office and Bloomington Resident Agency investigated the case, with assistance from the BPD. Chief U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt prosecuted the case.
“The FBI remains committed to protecting the civil rights of all individuals and this case should serve as a reminder that hate fueled actions will not be tolerated,” FBI Indianapolis Acting Special Agent in Charge Robert Middleton said in the press release. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and ensure those who perpetrate such acts of hate are held accountable.”
