Kansas Man Sentenced for Issuing Race-Based Death Threats to Multiple Black People

A Kansas man was sentenced today to 80 months in prison for threatening multiple Black people in and around the Wichita area, and for interfering with the housing rights of a white woman because he believed that she was dating and associating with Black people.

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, Schoemann admitted that, in July 2022, he brandished a firearm and used racial slurs in order to threaten two Black juveniles while they were entering a QuikTrip gasoline station, and that he also used his firearm to threaten a Black adult who intervened to support the juveniles. Schoemann also acknowledged that, from January 2022 through August 2022, he interfered with the federally protected housing rights of a white woman by making threats to hurt or kill any 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.

"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 made threats to a woman and her family that he would shoot and kill any Black person who visited the woman's home. After that campaign of terror, the defendant called two Black children racist slurs, and threatened the children and a Black woman with a gun when they happened to cross paths at a convenience store. This case should make clear that the Justice Department will not rest in bringing the perpetrators of racially-motivated hate crimes to justice."

"Perpetrators of hate crimes inflict pain upon victims in furtherance of a larger goal of breeding fear and divisiveness within our communities," said U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher for the District of Kansas. "The Justice Department is standing against racial violence and threats of racial 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 witnesses to 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 Section are prosecuting the case.