A 31-year-old Wichita man who threatened to kill Black people and brandished a gun in front of Black children at a gas station has been sentenced to 80 months in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas said this week.
Austin D. Schoemann, who is white, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of interference with federally protected activities, two counts of interstate threats and one count of interference with housing. He was sentenced Wednesday.
These are the details outlined in the plea agreement with Schoemann:
On July 27, 2022, he threatened two Black children at a QuikTrip in Wichita. He had been drinking. When the children exited the building, Schoemann got out of his vehicle and started an argument with them. A witness said he said “white power” and used racial slurs. A Black woman who saw the encounter tried to calm Schoemann.
“He responded by threateningly brandishing a pistol and ejecting (not firing) a bullet from the chamber,” according to court documents. “Schoemann threatened (the children) because they are Black and because they were enjoying the services and facilities.”
He also threatened the woman.
After dating a white Wellington woman in December 2021 and being dumped after a month, he “tried to run off Black people who visited her home or property, and he sent racially-threatening messages to her, her family members, and other people she knew,” the plea agreement says.
He also rented a house just down the street from her.
He would stand outside her home and shout threats and racial slurs when he thought a Black person was inside. And he would confront and threaten Black visitors to the home.
Schoemann destroyed her mother’s car windshield, which he mistakenly thought belonged to a Black visitor to the ex-girlfriend’s home.
He also sent her family members and people she knew videos containing threats to murder Black people. In one video, according to the plea agreement, he held a Smith and Wesson assault rifle and two Remington shotguns and made statements, including:
- “Put me in front of a welfare line; I will get rid of poverty”
- “Here’s what I’m going to get it done with”
- “One cap to the head, (racial slur) dead”
- “this (shotgun) is silky smooth and yeah it will kill (racial slur)“
He also sent her family members threats directed at two Black acquaintances of his ex, including that “you can tell (them) that their last minutes of life are soon.” He also messaged them that he would “get rid of every (racial slur) in this town.”
In a news release, U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher for the District of Kansas said:
“Perpetrators of hate crimes inflict pain upon victims in furtherance of a larger goal of breeding fear and divisiveness within our communities. 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.”
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