Man pleads guilty to hate crime after threatening Black man and saying Paola is a 'white town'
Paola is a "white town," Colton Donner told a Black man as he threatened him with a knife on Sept. 11, 2019, in that city in east-central Kansas, federal officials say.
Donner, 27, has pleaded guilty to a racially motivated federal hate crime linked to that incident, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.
It said in a news release that Donner pleaded guilty to threatening a Black man with a knife because of the man’s race, and in order to intimidate and interfere with the man’s right to fair housing.
Paola is about 80 miles southeast of Topeka.
Thursday's news release said Donner was driving through a residential area in Paola when he stopped, got out of a car, brandished a knife while approaching a Black man he saw walking on the sidewalk and threatened him, yelling racial slurs and saying Paola was a “white town.”
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“Racially motivated hate crimes have no place in our society today," said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division. "All people deserve to feel safe and secure living in their communities, regardless of race, color or national origin.”
“Every individual has the right to occupy a home free from racial discrimination, yet the defendant targeted the victim for no other reason than the victim’s race,” said Charles Dayoub, special agent in charge of the FBI's Kansas City, Mo., field office. “The defendant’s actions directly undermined the victim’s right to reside in a community in Paola, Kansas, and to enjoy the protections afforded under the federal civil rights act.”
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Donner faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the Justice Department said.
The case was investigated by the Paola Police Department and the Kansas City, Mo., field office of the FBI, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tristan Hunt of the District of Kansas and Anita Channapati of the civil rights division’s criminal section.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Man admits hate crime after telling Black man Paola's a ‘white town’
