Two Men Attack Sikh Man in California; Charged With Hate Crime

According to local media, two men who are indicted of attacking a Sikh man in California were charged on Friday with assault as a hate crime. The men attacked the Sikh by punching him, knocking off his turban and cutting his hair.

The attack is one of several similar beatings of Sikhs in the United States over a period of at least ten years.

Assailants, according to hate crime-tracking groups, have occasionally mistaken Sikhs for Muslims.

The two men charged could not be reached. It was also unclear if they had gotten hold of an attorney.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the incident happened in Richmond, San Francisco on September 25. The Sikh Man, Maan Singh Khalsa, has told police he was in his vehicle at an intersection when someone in a truck threw a beer can at him.

Khalsa, 41, exited his car and tossed the can back. The men in the truck trailed him when he drove off, according to local media.

The men caught up to him at an intersection. They then punched Khalsa through his open window, hence, knocking off his turban, prosecutors said.

According to the Chronicle, prosecutors say one of the assailants, Chase Bryan Little, cut the Sikh’s hair with a knife.

Contra Costa County deputy district attorney Simon O’Connell said in a statement to local media that the brutal cutting of Khalsa’s unkempt hair, a sacred article of his faith, represents a hate crime under law.

Little and his companion, Colton Tye Leblanc, were charged on Friday with assault by means to produce great bodily injury. They were also charged with assault with a deadly weapon. These were gleaned from documents posted on the website of San Francisco television station KQED stated.

Little was arrested after the attack while Leblanc still remains at large. The two men are from Texas and were in California to work at a refinery, local media said.

The New York-based Sikh Coalition had joined with civil rights groups. This alliance is pushing for prosecutors to file hate crime charges in the attack on Khalsa, the coalition announced on its website.

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