A judge handed down a life sentence to a man charged in a vicious and unprovoked attack where he repeatedly stabbed a Latino passenger on an L.A. Metro bus while yelling racial slurs.Gerald Pitts, 67, was recently found guilty of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and multiple special allegations, including committing a hate crime and causing great bodily injury.The assault took place around 9 p.m. on a Saturday in March 2023 when the victim, Santos Tejas Gonzalez, boarded a Metro bus and tried to walk past Pitts to take a seat, according to the L.A. County Dist. Atty.’s Office.Pitts immediately yelled racial slurs at him. Then, when Gonzalez tried to exit in Exposition Park to avoid further confrontation, Pitts whipped out a knife, prosecutors said. He stabbed Gonzalez several times in the abdomen, arm, hand and face, leaving him with life-threatening injuries.Gonzalez fell out of the bus and onto the pavement at the Western Avenue and Exposition Boulevard stop, but Pitts did not stop his attack. He continued to yell racial slurs and kicked Gonzalez in the head multiple times.A jury found Pitts guilty on June 16 and, on Thursday, he was sentenced to life plus seven years in state prison with the possibility of parole. L.A. Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said this kind of violence is exactly what hate crime laws are meant to address.“These crimes are meant to intimidate entire communities and weaken the trust that holds us together,” he said in a statement Thursday. “Gerald Pitts attacked a complete stranger because of his race or perceived race, repeatedly stabbed him, and kept attacking him even after the victim fell from the bus.”Hochman also said that his office has made it a priority to aggressively prosecute hate crimes and push back against allowing perpetrators of violent hate crimes to receive mental health diversion. He noted that his office successfully appealed a judge’s ruling that granted diversion to Job Uriah Taylor, 28, who was charged with attempted murder and a hate crime special allegation.Taylor is now scheduled to stand trial later this year after he was accused of attacking three victims in a racially motivated rampage in Downtown Santa Monica in 2023. He suffers from bipolar disorder and had recently been released from a psychiatric facility at the time of the attack.“When someone commits a calculated act of violence fueled by hatred,” said Hochman, “our responsibility is to protect the public, seek justice for victims and ensure the law is fully enforced.”There were 1,355 hate crimes reported in L.A. County in 2024, the latest year for which data is available. This number was a 1% decrease from the record high reported in 2023 and represents an average of nearly 4 hate crimes a day. It included 345 anti-Black crimes, 143 anti-Latino crimes, 135 antisemitic crimes and 102 anti-transgender crimes.
