A Colorado man pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges after he admitted that he stabbed a stranger twice in the neck in an Arby’s restaurant because the man was black.
According to the Department of Justice, trucker Nolan Levi Strauss, 27 stabbed Ronnell Tyrone Hughes who was 48-years-old at the time, and applying for a job at the restaurant on the morning of December 21, 2019.
Prosecutors say Strauss entered the Arby’s restaurant, walked up behind Hughes and stabbed him in the neck twice, unprovoked. Hughes tried to grab the knife which prevented Strauss from stabbing him a third time, and ran to the other side of the restaurant where he collapsed. A maintenance worker was able to subdue Strauss by using a belt to secure his hands behind his back while they waited for police to arrive.
When asked by the worker why he stabbed the man, Strauss replied: “Because he was Black, and I don’t like Black people.”
He was arrested and later admitted that he attempted to murder a complete stranger because of the color of his skin.
“The suspect said he chose the victim at random due to the color of his skin” and that “he hates black people,” according to the affidavit. The suspect said “his intent was to kill the victim.”
Hughes suffered two lacerations to his neck and was medically evaluated in Ontario before he was air-lifted to a hospital in Boise, Idaho for further treatment.
Strauss told police that he had a “history of mental health issues in the state of Nebraska” and that he was diagnosed as bipolar in 2016 “but hasn’t been taking medication.”
On Sept. 17, 2020, a federal grand jury in Eugene returned a single-count indictment charging Strauss with a hate crime involving an attempt to kill, according to the Justice Department press release. He will be sentenced by a U.S. District Court Judge on Sept. 9 and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
