Staff reports
The man accused of striking a foreign exchange student in the back with a hatchet in downtown Nashville on Thursday is expected in court Monday afternoon to hear what official charges he will face.
Dana Ericson, 59, of Nashville, was charged preliminarily Friday with attempted murder, a Level 1 felony; aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony; and battery causing serious injury, a Level 5 felony.
Those charges could be amended.
Police said Ericson admitted to officers that he attacked 18-year-old Brown County High School student Zhang Yue because she is Asian. He said he was attempting “ethnic cleansing.”
He called himself a white supremacist and the attack “communication.”
Ericson has a history of violent crime and of time spent in psychiatric hospitals, according to online court records.
