{"id":45342,"date":"2017-03-05T15:08:34","date_gmt":"2017-03-05T09:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org\/?p=45342"},"modified":"2017-03-05T15:08:34","modified_gmt":"2017-03-05T09:38:34","slug":"sikh-man-shot-us-attacker-yelled-go-back-country-times-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=45342","title":{"rendered":"Sikh man shot at in US; attacker yelled 'go back to your own country' | Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK: A 39-year-old Sikh man in the US has been shot and wounded outside his home by a partially – masked gunman who shouted “go back to your own country”, in a suspected hate crime incident that comes just days after an Indian engineer was killed in Kansas.
\nThe Sikh man, identified as US national Deep Rai by Indian officials in New Delhi, was working on his vehicle outside his home in Kent, Washington, on Friday when he was approached by a stranger, who walked up to his driveway.
\nKent police said an argument broke out between the two men, with Rai saying the suspect made statements to the effect of “go back to your own country”. The unidentified man then shot him in the arm.
\nThe victim described the shooter as a six-foot-tall white man, wearing a mask covering the lower half of his face. Kent police are looking for the gunman.
\nKent Police Chief Ken Thomas said while the Sikh man sustained “non life-threatening injuries”, they are treating this as a “very serious incident”.
\nRai is able to talk, an Indian government official said. The official said the government was ready to offer all possible assistance to the wounded man.
\nAuthorities are investigating the shooting as a suspected hate crime, according to the Seattle Times.
\nConsulate General of India in San Francisco is in touch with local authorities who are ascertaining the nature of the crime, the Indian official said.
\nKent police have launched an investigation into the case and reached out to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.
\n“We’re early on in our investigation,” Thomas said.
\nKent Police Commander Jarod Kasner said the incident is getting attention from the Sikh community and others.
\n“With recent unrest and concern throughout the nation this can get people emotionally involved, especially when (the crime) is directed at a person for how they live, how they look,” Kasner said.
\nThe incident is the latest in a series of troubling cases where members of the Indian community have been targeted in apparent hate crimes.
\nIt comes close on the heels of the tragic hate crime shooting in Kansas last month<\/span> in which 32-year-old Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla was killed when 51-year-old US Navy veteran Adam Purinton opened fire at him and his friend Alok Madasani, yelling “get out of my country”.
\nEarlier this week, Indian-origin convenience store owner Harnish Patel, 43, of Lancaster in South Carolina was found dead<\/span> of gun shot wounds in his yard. However, police said in Patel’s killing his Indian ethnicity does not appear to be a factor.
\nJasmit Singh, a leader of the Sikh community in Renton, said he had been told that the Sikh man injured in Friday’s incident has been released from hospital.
\nHe said the victim and his family are “very shaken up”.
\n“We’re all kind of at a loss in terms of what’s going on right now, this is just bringing it home. The climate of hate that has been created doesn’t distinguish between anyone,” he said.
\nSingh said that men from his community have reported a rise in incidents of verbal abuse, “a kind of prejudice, a kind of xenophobia that is nothing that we’ve seen in the recent past.”
\nHe said the number of incidents targeting members of the Sikh religion, are reminiscent of the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
\n“But at that time, it felt like the (presidential) administration was actively working to allay those fears,” Jasmit Singh said, adding that “now it’s a very different dimension.”
\nIndia’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj shared her condolence on the attack on Deep Rai and said, “he is out of danger and recovering well in a private hospital.”<\/p>\n

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I am sorry to know about the attack on Deep Rai a US national of Indian origin. I have spoken to Sardar Harpal Singh father of the victim.\/1<\/p>\n

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) March 5, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n