Kansas man convicted of making race-based death threats

WICHITA, Kan. (WIBW) – A Kansas man was sentenced Wednesday to 80 months in prison for threatening multiple black people in and around the Wichita area and for interfering with a white woman’s housing rights because he believed she was dating and associated with black people, the US Attorney’s Office in Kansas announced.

Austin Schoemann, 31, of Wichita, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of interference with federally protected activities, two counts of interstate threats and one count of interference with housing. In connection with the plea, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice,

Schoemann admitted that in July 2022, he brandished a firearm and used racial slurs to threaten two Black youths as they entered a QuikTrip gas station, and that he also used his firearm to threaten a Black adult who intervened to stop the support young people. said the press release.

Schoemann also acknowledged that from January 2022 through August 2022, he interfered with a white woman’s federally protected housing rights by threatening to harm or kill Black people who visited her home, the news release said.

Schoemann further admitted to sending videos and messages to the woman’s relatives and others in which he repeatedly threatened to shoot and kill black people, the news release said.

“Racially motivated threats of violence cannot be tolerated in our society,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “For months, this defendant told a woman and her family that he would shoot any black person who visited the woman’s home.

“After that terrorist campaign, the defendant called two black children racist remarks and threatened the children and a black woman with a gun when they happened to meet each other in a supermarket. This case should make it clear that the Department of Justice will not rest in bringing the perpetrators of racially motivated hate crimes to justice.”

U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher for the District of Kansas said in the news release that “perpetrators of hate crimes hurt victims in furtherance of a larger goal: creating fear and division within our communities. The Department of Justice stands against racist violence and the threat of racist violence by prosecuting offenders, but we need the public’s help. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas encourages those who are victims of or witness hate crimes to report these incidents to law enforcement.”

The FBI Kansas City Field Office and Wichita Police investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Smith for the District of Kansas and Trial Attorneys Thomas Johnson and Erin Monju of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Division are prosecuting the case.

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