Police in a Seattle suburb were looking for a gunman who shot a Sikh man in the arm and told him to “go back to your own country,” the local media reported.
The victim (39) told police that he was working in his driveway about 8pm Friday when the unknown man came up to him, the local paper reported.
An argument ensued, and the suspect told him to go back to his homeland, the victim said. The victim told police the man then shot him in the arm, the newspaper reported.
The victim told police that the shooter is 6-foot-tall, white and has a stocky build. The victim said the man was wearing a mask covering the lower half of his face.
The incident is the latest in a series of troubling cases where members of the Indian community have been targeted in apparent hate crimes.
Last month, an Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla was killed in Kansas when 51-year old US Navy veteran Adam Purinton opened fire at him and his friend Alok Madasani before yelling “get out of my country”.
Earlier this week, Indian-origin convenience store owner Harnish Patel, 43, of Lancaster in South Carolina was found dead with gun shot wounds.
Kent 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.”
Kent police commander Jarod Kasner said the incident is getting attention from the Sikh community and others. “With recent unrest and concern throughout the nation this got people emotionally involved, especially when the crime is directed at a person for how they live, how they look,” Kasner said.
