A 58-year-old Virginia man could face life in prison for following and shooting two Latino men because he was “pissed” about “illegal immigration.”
Douglas Wayne Cornett pleaded guilty last week to two counts of federal hate crimes involving attempted murder and one count of discharging a firearm during a federal crime of violence, authorities said.
“Crimes like Douglas Cornett’s, acts of hate motivated violence, victimize not only individuals, but also families, communities, and groups by robbing them of their sense of security,” U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a statement. “Every person has a right to live free of the fear of violence and the menace of hate, and my office is committed to eliminating both.”
According to court documents, Cornett left his Spotsylvania home in the evening of February 28, 2024, armed with a 9 mm handgun and a 17-shot magazine.
At around 9 p.m., Cornett began honking at a white box truck driven by “Victim 1” on Interstate 95. The victim let Cornett pass, but Cornett stayed behind the victim’s vehicle, following it as it exited the highway and entered a gas station.
The victim called a nearby friend and reported being followed by a van. The friend, an adult Latino male referred to in the document as “Victim 2,” went to the same gas station and asked Cornett why he was following the box truck.
Cornett, who had stopped at the gas pump next to the truck, responded by asking “how long Victim 1 had been in the United States.”
Cornett told Victim 1 that he had been in the country for “a year and a half,” and then “pulled out the Sig Sauer P320 handgun and opened fire from his vehicle, discharging six rounds, four of which struck Victim 1 and Victim 2.”
Victim 1 was shot twice in the stomach and once in the arm, whereas Victim 2 was shot once in the stomach. Cornett then drove home, telling his roommates that he had just shot two men.
Cornett was quickly identified as the shooter and arrested on February 29. According to the criminal complaint, he immediately admitted to shooting the men and stated that “my intentions were clear in my brain at the time.”
“Cornett then described his anger at illegal immigration, telling the detective that he was ‘pissed’ about undocumented migrants receiving welfare funds, phones, and health insurance, and that he had ‘driven around before with the same thought,'” according to court paperwork. “Cornett later asked the detective whether he could be ‘charged for my thoughts,’ and went on to explain that he fantasized about flying an Apache helicopter gunship to the border and firing on undocumented migrants crossing into the United States in order ‘to deter’ other undocumented migrants from attempting to cross the border.”
In an interview with detectives, Cornett’s housemates stated that he was a “heavy consumer of cable television news” who was “kind of obsessed” by the news he saw about non-citizens entering the United States” at the southern border.
“Hate crimes not only harm individuals but also undermine the fabric of our communities,” stated Stephen Farina, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office. “FBI Richmond is steadfast in its dedication to investigating these violations thoroughly and swiftly to ensure justice for the victims and to protect the American people.”
Cornett faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on November 13, 2025.
