Police report that a student at Indiana University was targeted for being Asian in a bus stabbing.

According to police, an 18-year old Indiana University student was attacked and stabbed in Bloomington because he was Asian.

Investigators learned that the 18-year-old Carmel girl, Indiana, claimed that, while she was waiting for Bloomington’s bus doors to open, another passenger started to repeatedly strike her in the head. police said in a statement.

Billie Davis, 56, told the Bloomington Police Department that she used a folding knife to stab the 18-year-old in the head and targeted her for “being Chinese,” adding “it would be one less person to blow up our country,” according to court documents.

According to police, Davis and the victim did not interact before the attack. Court documents state that the video shows Davis wielding the knife on the victim and stabbing her “approximately seven more times” before she exits the bus.

Police said that the student sustained multiple head stab wounds and was then transported to a local hospital.

According to the court documents, Davis was charged with attempted murder, battery by means deadly weapon and aggravated battery. online court documents.

It wasn’t clear if the defendant had a lawyer who could speak on her behalf. The public defender’s office for Monroe County, Indiana didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Bloomington was reminded of the reality that anti-Asian hate exists and can have serious consequences on people and communities,” stated James Wimbush from Indiana University, vice president for diversity, equity, and multicultural affairs. “No one should be subject to harassment or violence because of their heritage, ethnicity, or background. The diversity of identities and perspectives that make up the campus and community culture of IU and Bloomington makes them stronger.

Counselling support is provided by the university to those in need.

According to the university’s Asian Culture Center, it was “a horrible and targeted anti-Asian hate Crime.”

It said that it was thinking of the victim and her family. statement Friday. “We are shocked and heartbroken by the unprovoked violence, but we also worry about the well-being in our community.”

The university’s Asian Culture Center hosted an event Friday for students and members of the community to “process feelings of fear, sadness, anger, and anxiety,” according to the center’s Facebook.

Police responded to a question about whether the attack is being investigated as a hate crime by pointing to the state’s relevant statute, which doesn’t provide for specific hate crime charges.

“Unfortunately, Indiana doesn’t have hate crimes laws,” Jeff Kehr, Monroe County Chief Deputy Public Prosecutor told NBC News. “That means that we don’t have any law that increases the amount of the charge or the maximum punishment for hate crimes. It is a statutory aggravating circumstance that can be argued to the judge at sentencing to increase the sentence beyond the midpoint, but that’s it.”

Indiana’s hate crime law, enacted in 2019, allows judges to consider harsher sentences where “bias” factors, including “color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion,” motivated the crime, according to the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Because the legislature intentionally deleted gender identity and sex as possible motivating factors, the Anti-Defamation League said Indiana will remain on its list There are no hate crime laws in all 50 states.

This article was first published on NBCNews.com