{"id":426009,"date":"2026-08-07T02:32:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T02:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/426009\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T02:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T02:32:19","slug":"man-gets-life-sentence-for-hate-crime-stabbing-aboard-los-angeles-bus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/426009\/","title":{"rendered":"Man gets life sentence for hate crime stabbing aboard Los Angeles bus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"UPI\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"554\" height=\"369\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/united_press_international_articles_356\/43d64b10662e930c672552b138dbeb76.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A screengrab from a Los Angeles Metro bus surveillance camera shows Gerald Pitts (top) before attacking Santos Tejas Gonzalez (lower left) with a knife in what prosecutors said was a hate-motivated attempted murder in 2023. Photo courtesy Los Angeles County District Attorney&#8217;s Office<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Aug. 6 (UPI) &#8212; A man who stabbed and tried to kill another passenger during the commission of a hate crime aboard a Los Angeles bus in 2023 was sentenced to life in prison plus seven years on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Gerald Pitts, 67, was found guilty of attempted murder of Santos Tejas Gonzalez in June and on Thursday was handed the lengthy sentence in Los Angeles Superior Court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Gonzalez survived the assault aboard the Los Angeles Metro bus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;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,&#8221; Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in <a data-ylk=\"slk:a statement;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/da.lacounty.gov\/media\/news\/man-sentenced-life-plus-seven-years-prison-attempted-murder-hate-crime-metro-bus\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We&#8217;re grateful the victim survived and relieved that he is continuing to recover. This kind of violence is exactly what hate crime laws are meant to address.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Prosecutors said Gonzalez tried to move past Pitts on the bus to get to a seat. Pitts then yelled racial slurs at Gonzalez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:Surveillance video;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=17EmX_cc9ZM\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Surveillance video<\/a> on the bus showed Gonzalez falling while trying to leave the bus with what appeared to be a knife in his face. Pitts was seen grabbing the knife and striking Gonzalez as he tried to escape through the rear door.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After Gonzalez fell from the bus, Pitts continued yelling racial slurs while kicking him in the head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Gonzalez is continuing to recover from his injuries, Hochman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A screengrab from a Los Angeles Metro bus surveillance camera shows Gerald Pitts (top) before attacking Santos Tejas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[169786,36698,48,52,51,47,50,169787,49,66494],"class_list":["post-426009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-gerald-pitts","tag-hate-crime","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-metro-bus","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-superior-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}