A 56-year-old woman, Billie R. Davis, has been arrested for stabbing an 18-year-old female student at Indiana University for being Chinese. Davis and the girl were about to get off the Bloomington Transit bus at the West 4th Street and B-Line Trail around 4:45 pm on Wednesday when the incident occurred.
Video footage from Bus No. 1777 revealed that as passengers were about to disembark from the bus, Davis pulled out a pocket knife and proceeded to stab the student seven times on her head. With blood gushing from the girl’s head, the assailant walked calmly away, but another passenger who witnessed the attack trailed her on foot and reported Davis’ location to the police.
She was arrested at the intersection of Kirkwood Avenue and South Washington Street. Video footage showed that Davis and the university student did not interact on the bus previous to the unprovoked attack. After the girl was rushed to hospital and Davis arrested, she told officers at the Monroe County Jail that she attacked the Chinese girl to reduce the number of Asians in the United States.
“Race was a factor in why she stabbed her,” the affidavit of probable cause stated. “Davis made a statement that it would be one less person to blow up our country.”
Davis told police that it was her intention to kill the girl, and she had thrown away the folding knife before law enforcement picked her up. Held in jail without bond, Davis is now charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery, and battery with a deadly weapon. The Asian Culture Center at Indiana University has also condemned the attack, calling in unprovoked and asking for Asian students who have been threatened in any way in the Bloomington community to speak out.
“An 18-year-old Asian student was stabbed in a horrific and targeted anti-Asian hate crime,” the Asian Culture Center wrote in a release. “Our thoughts go out to the victim of this horrendous act, to her family, and to everyone in the community who is affected by this racial violence. We are outraged and heartbroken by this unprovoked act of violence, but we also worry about the well-being of our community. We should not fear for our lives on public transportation. Taking the bus should not feel dangerous.”
