California man who drove into crowd at Stop Asian Hate rally sentenced to 1 year in prison

A California man who pleaded guilty to driving a car into a crowd of “Stop Asian Hate” protesters was sentenced to a year in prison on Monday.

Steve Lee Dominguez, 58, from the Southern Californian city of Diamond Bar, drove his car through the middle of the crowd at a 2021 rally in Los Angeles. Federal prosecutors said he deliberately drove through a red light and into a crosswalk where peaceful demonstrators were marching. He narrowly missed hitting multiple protesters and a 9-year-old child.

Dominguez then got out of his car and began yelling “racial epithets,” including the N-word, “Go back to China,” and threatening the demonstrators, prosecutors said.

The rally took place in March 2021 as a response to the Atlanta spa shootings earlier that month, during which a shooter killed eight people, including six Asian women. In the weeks that followed, “Stop Asian Hate” protests and rallies appeared in cities nationwide.

Read more: NBC News