KENT, WASHINGTON // Authorities are investigating the suspected hate crime shooting of a Sikh man at his home near Seattle, just days after an engineer from India was shot dead in Kansas.
The 39-year-old Sikh was working on his car in his driveway in Kent, Washington just south of Seattle, when a man walked up late Friday wearing a mask and holding a gun.
The Seattle Times newspaper reported that the partially-masked gunman, after exchanging words with the victim, said "Go back to your own country" before pulling the trigger, shooting him in the arm.
The daily reported that police are continuing to search for the gunman.
Jasmit Singh, a leader of the Sikh community near Seattle, said the victim has been released from the hospital.
“He is just very shaken up, both him and his family,” Mr Singh said.
“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.”
India’s foreign minister said on Twitter early Sunday the victim’s name is Deep Rai.
“I am sorry to know about the attack on Deep Rai, a US national of Indian origin,” said Sushma Swaraj. “I have spoken to Sardar Harpal Singh, father of the victim.”
The incident follows a shooting at a Kansas bar last month that killed 32-year-old engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla, causing shock waves felt around the country.
A second Indian engineer, Alok Madasani, was injured in the Kansas shooting carried out by a white gunman whom witnesses said screamed racial slurs and told his victims to “get out of my country” before opening fire.
The Sikh Coalition, a New York-based civil rights group, asked local and federal authorities in a statement Saturday to investigate the latest shooting as a hate crime.
Male observant Sikhs often cover their heads with turbans, which are considered sacred, and refrain from shaving their beards. The faith comes from South Asia’s Punjab region.
An argument ensued in the driveway, and Rai told police the suspect said he should go back to his homeland. He told police the man then shot him in the arm, the newspaper reported.
Recently, South Asians have been on edge after a deadly shooting in a suburban Kansas City bar that the FBI is investigating as a hate crime. Authorities said witnesses to the shooting that left an Indian man dead and another wounded said the suspect yelled “get out of my country” before he opened fire.
Rai told police that the shooter is six-feet-tall (1.82m), white and has a stocky build. He said the man was wearing a mask covering the lower half of his face.
Police told the newspaper that the agency has contacted the FBI and other law enforcement agencies about the incident.
“We’re early on in our investigation,” Kent police chief Ken Thomas said Saturday. “We are treating this as a very serious incident.”
* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
