A D.C. man pleaded guilty Thursday to assaulting three adults of Chinese descent who were walking down a street in the Glover Park area of Washington, D.C., the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced.
Patrick Trebat, 39, pleaded guilty to three counts of simple assault, including one with a hate-bias enhancement, for punching and pushing the victims, prosecutors said. A judge sentenced him to 630 days in jail with all but 210 days suspended on the condition that Trebat completes three years of supervised probation.
Prosecutors said Trebat attacked a man, a woman and their adult son because they appeared to be from another country and spoke a language Trebat didn't understand.
The family was walking near the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Fulton Street NW and speaking in a Chinese dialect the morning of Aug. 7, 2021, when Trebat began shouting profanities at them, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
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When they tried to cross the street to get away from Trebat, he shouted at them, saying things like, "You are not American," and "Go back to your country," the attorney's office said.
Trebat then ran up and attacked the older man from behind, punching him in the back of the head and then pushing him with enough force to cause him to fall to the ground, prosecutors said. Then, authorities say Trebat pushed the woman to the ground from behind and punched the son in the face when he tried to intervene.
As a result of the attack, the older man experienced pain in the back of his head and suffered a broken wrist, the attorney's office said. The woman experienced pain in her arm and their son suffered a fractured finger. All of them had cuts and bruises, prosecutors said.
