A Washington man is facing prison time after he committed a hate crime. Paul Bittner was charged with assault and a hate crime after attacking a young Black boy. The attack was completely random and Bittner had no previous connection to the child. In addition to the physical attack, the man began to shout slurs at the boy, including the n-word. The boy did sustain some minor physical injuries. At first, it was believed that Bittner wouldn’t be able to stand trial because of mental illness, but after some rehabilitation, he was able to be put on trial.
Paul Jonathan Bittner, 43, pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree assault of a child, and commission of a hate crime in a Washington court on Tuesday, July 15, The Bellingham Herald reported. He was sentenced to 41 months in prison. After that, he will serve 18 months in community custody.
On June 12, 2024, an unnamed 11-year-old Black boy was walking back to Whatcom Middle School after a field trip. As he and the other students were walking, Bittner joined in with the group. He was walking directly in front of the young boy.
“I was walking along the sidewalk and then he crossed the street. And he got up in front of me and my friend and punched me in the face,” the boy told KIRO 7. “After he punched me, he pushed me and then he said, ‘Are you going to talk to a white man like that?’”
“I was mad, sad, confused. I was a bunch of different emotions,” he shared. According to court documents, the boy was in “immense pain,” had a chipped tooth and also some damage to his nose.
When Bittner was arrested, he continued making racial slurs to the police, including using the n-word. He also made comments about physically harming Black people.
Paul Bittner initially pleaded guilty to commission of a hate crime, a class C felony, and second-degree assault, a class B felony, the Cascadia Daily News reported. In a competency review, he said he had been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia. The evaluator also determined he met the criteria for schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, court documents revealed.
“It is unclear how much he understood the charges and allegations, while his refusal to discuss them certainly seems to be a notable factor,” the court documents stated.
He was then ordered to receive 90 days of inpatient treatment at Western State Hospital while in the custody of the Washington State Department of Social and Health. According to Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Benjamin Pratt, Bittner showed a “substantially different temperament” after the treatment, The Bellingham Herald reported.
“The toughest part about this is that my son was doing nothing. Nothing wrong. And was attacked. Attacked because of his skin color. Because he didn’t look like his attacker,” the boy’s father, Devante Blow, told KIRO 7.
“We have a responsibility to protect others. Others that look like us and others that don’t look like us from hate. This is not indicative of what happens here in Bellingham and Whatcom County. And so at any glance of hatred, we have to point it out. And we have to be loud about it, so that it can get cut off.”
