CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A Georgia man has been sentenced to federal prison for shooting into Clayton County convenience stores in 2021 with the intent "to kill Arab and Black people," according to officials with the Justice Department.
Larry Edward Foxworth, 48, was sentenced to 20 years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime based on actual or perceived race or color and for discharging a firearm during the commission of a crime in December 2022.
Foxworth's charges stemmed from July 30, 2021, when he fired several rounds from a Glock pistol through a window and a door of a gas station convenience store in Jonesboro, prosecutors said.
The first shots were fired around 2:35 a.m. About 20 minutes later, prosecutors said Foxworth fired into a different convenience store not that far off. Both stores had people inside but no one was hit by the gunfire.
Clayton County Police Department officers arrested Foxworth after the second round of shots. When investigators questioned him about the attacks, prosecutors said that the Jonesboro man claimed he targeted the stores because "he wanted to kill Arab and Black people." Foxworth expressed to authorities that he was hoping he had killed his targets. He also professed belief in white supremacist ideology, according to a news release from the DOJ.
"Foxworth used a firearm to commit a brazen and heinous hate crime," U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a news release. "He fired repeatedly into convenience stores in his effort to kill those inside based solely on the color of their skin."
Beyond his sentence, Foxworth has also been asked to pay restitution of $1,000.