Wichita man convicted of race-based death threats

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – A Wichita man faces six and a half years in prison for making race-based threats. The sentencing against Austin Schoemann comes after he pleaded guilty to charges including interference with federally protected activities, interstate threats and interference with housing.

In a press release, the U.S. Department of Justice reiterated the crimes for which Schoemann faces prison time.

“In connection with the plea, 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 assault a black man to threaten. adult who intervened to support the young people. 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. Schoemann further admitted that he sent videos and messages to the woman’s family members and others in which he repeatedly threatened to shoot and kill black people.”

After the sentencing, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division described some of Schoemann’s threats as “a campaign of terror.”

“Racially motivated threats of violence cannot be tolerated in our society,” Clarke said. “For months, this defendant threatened a woman and her family that he would shoot and kill any black person who visited the woman’s home. After that terror campaign, the defendant made racist comments to two black children 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.”

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