BY HAYLEY FOWLER
(THE OLYMPIAN) Two teenagers wearing hijabs were walking home from a school bus stop in 2017 when they said a man shouted at them and told them to go back to their country. The same man is accused of attacking their father with a knife when he stepped in to defend them.
After nearly four years and a mistrial, the man charged in the incident — 35-year-old Christopher Beckham — pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges in Tennessee federal court on Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee said in a news release.
Beckham faces up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine when he’s sentenced in October.
“The cowardly and unprovoked attack and display of hate-filled aggression by this defendant toward two innocent young girls and their father is despicable,” Acting U.S. Attorney Mary Jane Stewart said in the release. Public defenders appointed to represent Beckham did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Tuesday.