Inset: Douglas Wayne Cornett (Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office). Background: The gas station where Cornett shot two men because he believed they were illegal immigrants (Google Maps).
A 58-year-old man in Virginia may spend the rest of his life behind bars for following and shooting two Latino men because he was “pissed” about “illegal immigration.”
Douglas Wayne Cornett last week pleaded guilty to two counts of federal hate crimes involving attempts to kill and one count of discharging a firearm during a federal crime of violence, authorities announced.
“Crimes like Douglas Cornett’s, acts of hate motivated violence, victimize not just the individual, but harm 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 on the evening of Feb. 28, 2024, left his home in Spotsylvania armed with a 9 mm handgun equipped with a 17-shot magazine. At about 9 p.m., Cornett encountered a white box truck on Interstate 95 being driven by “Victim 1” and began honking. The victim allowed Cornett to pass, but Cornett remained behind the victim’s vehicle, following it as the truck pulled off the highway and into a gas station.
The victim called a friend who was nearby and said he was being followed by a van. The friend, also 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 alongside the truck, responded by asking “how long Victim 1 had been in the United States. Told Victim 1 had been in the country about “a year and a half,” Cornett 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 while Victim 2 was shot once in the stomach. Cornett then drove home and informed his roommates that he had just shot two men.
Cornett was quickly identified as the shooter and arrested on Feb. 29. Investigators said he immediately admitted to shooting the men, saying, “my intentions were clear in my brain, at the time,” per the criminal complaint.
“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,'” court documents state. “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 traveling 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 said that he was ‘a heavy consumer of cable television news” who “was ‘kind of obsessed’ by the news that he viewed regarding the entry of non-citizens into the United States” at the southern border.
“Hate crimes not only harm individuals but undermine the fabric of our communities,” said 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 is facing up to life in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 13, 2025.
