A Kansas City, Missouri man has pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes charges after shooting a teenage boy 8 times because he was gay.

Malachi Robinson, 26, admitted this week to shooting the teen on May 29, 2019. After the boy approached him and asked to connect via Facebook. The two then began a conversation over Facebook Messenger in which M.S. asked about Robinson’s sexual orientation and suggested the meet in the library’s bathroom. Robinson told him that he was not gay but agreed to meet outside the library to engage in oral sex in exchange for $5.

All the while Robinson was sending screenshots of the chat to his girlfriend.

Robinson then left the library and followed the teen to a wooded area nearby,. That’s when Robinson shot the teen approximately eight times, hitting him three times in the chest, three times in his right arm, once in his left buttocks, and once in his right hand, almost detaching his finger.

On a June 2, 2019 Facebook message, he wrote, “I shot a ni**a. He was being gay af and following me like a mf.”

“This attempted murder is a reminder that hate crimes against the LGBTQI+ community are real and must be confronted,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a July 7 statement. “Violent acts targeting people based on their sexual orientation are heinous crimes that have no place in our country.”

The unidentified teen miraculously survived and spent two weeks in the hospital before being released.