Georgia man pleads guilty to federal hate crime after shooting into convenience stores

A Georgia man has pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime and a firearms violation after he fired into two local convenience stores in an attempt to kill those inside because of their race and ethnicity. 

A Justice Department (DOJ) release states that 48-year-old Larry Foxworth fired multiple rounds of a Glock pistol through a window and door of a Shell gas station convenience store and the windows and door of a BP gas station convenience store minutes later. Both incidents happened in Clayton County, which is located in central Georgia and is considered part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. 

Both stores were open and occupied when Foxworth fired the shots, but no one was injured, per the release. Foxworth was arrested shortly after the second shooting, and the DOJ states he made multiple statements in police custody revealing that he was trying to target Black people and people who he believed to be Arab. 

He told police that he hoped he had killed his targets and professed white supremacist beliefs and an allegiance to a white supremacist organization, according to the department.

“This defendant, who professed support for a white supremacist organization, is being held accountable for an abhorrent act of violence motivated by race and national origin,” Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Kristen Clark said. “This conviction should make clear that the Justice Department stands ready to prosecute any individual who carries out a violent hate-motivated crime in our country.”

Foxworth’s plea agreement states that his sentence should be between 20 and 25 years. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 16. 

“Foxworth used a firearm to commit a heinous hate crime that traumatized his victims as well as the communities who rely on these businesses,” said Ryan Buchanan, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. “The vigorous prosecution of such abhorrent acts of violence and intimidation with the assistance of our federal partners is a top priority for this office.”