Los Angeles County DA Sentences Gerald Pitts to Life for Hate Crime Metro Bus Stabbing

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman held a press conference to outline the office’s intensified focus on hate‑crime prosecution. Central to the announcement was the sentencing of 67‑year‑old Gerald Pitts of Santa Monica, who received a life term with the possibility of parole plus seven years for a racially motivated attack on a Metro bus in March 2023. Pitts repeatedly shouted slurs, stabbed victim Santos Tejas Gonzalez multiple times, and kicked him after he fell from the vehicle. Gonzalez survived but sustained life‑threatening injuries.

Hochman emphasized that while the First Amendment protects speech, the combination of hateful rhetoric with violent conduct crosses the line into a hate crime that the district attorney will pursue aggressively. The DA’s office also cited other recent cases, including a metal‑bar assault that left a victim in a wheelchair and a successful appeal overturning a mental‑health diversion for a separate hate‑crime defendant. Police chiefs from Los Angeles, Redondo Beach and Culver City attended the briefing, underscoring a coordinated law‑enforcement response to bias‑motivated violence in the region.