Sikh man shot in US, attacker says ‘go back to your country’

WASHINGTON: A Sikh man was shot at and wounded in his driveway in Kent, Washington, by a masked assailant who then called out to him to “go back to your own country”, a variation of the last words Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla heard at a bar in Olathe, Kansas, last month in a hate-crime murder that shook up both the US and India.

On Thursday, a 43-year-old Indian-origin store owner in South Carolina, Harnish Patel, was shot dead outside his home, although the county sheriff said this “may not be a hate crime”.

The Kent shooting took place at 8pm, according to local police. The assailant walked up to the victim, a 39-year-old Sikh who was working on his car in the driveway. They had an argument that ended with the shooter opening fire, and telling him to return to his country.

The shooter, who wore a mask covering the lower portion of his face, had not been identified till the filing of this report and the local police were reported to have sought the FBI’s help in investigating the case, which appeared to be a hate crime.

“We’re early on in our investigation,” Kent police chief Ken Thomas told Seattle Times.

“We are treating this as a very serious incident.” The victim, identified by Indian authorities as Deep Rai, was shot in the arm and was released from hospital after treatment. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj expressed concern over the South Carolina and Kent attacks. She tweeted: “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... He told me that his son had a bullet injury on his arm.”

THIS IS THIRD ATTACK ON AN INDIAN IN THE US WITHIN TWO WEEKS