White attacker shoots Sikh man in Washington State after yelling, ‘Go back to your own country’
Another day, another hate crime in the United States of Donald Trump.
News media in Washington State are reporting that a 39-year-old follower of the Sikh religion was shot in his driveway in Kent Friday night by a masked white man who allegedly yelled, “Go back to your own country.” Kent is located about 19 miles south of Seattle.
The shooting occurred while the victim, who survived the attack, was working on his vehicle, The News Tribune reported. Few other details were immediately available.
In a statement, the Kent Police Department said it had reached out to the FBI to investigate. The suspect is described as a “6-foot-tall white man with a mask covering the lower half of his face. He had a stocky build and wore dark clothing,” according to The News Tribune.
The attack occurred just nine days after 51-year-old Adam Purinton shot three people—including two engineers originally from India—in a Olathe, KS bar after yelling, “get out of my country.” Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, died in the attack. Two others were injured.
Hate crimes have skyrocketed across the country since Trump’s election last November. As part of its “Documenting Hate” program, the Southern Poverty Law Center collected over 1,300 reports of hate crimes committed between the day after Trump’s election and Feb. 7.
As Fusion’s Rafi Schwartz reported this week, at least five waves of targeted anti-Semitism—including bomb threats targeting Jewish Community Centers—have occurred in the past two months. Several other attacks have targeted individuals based on their ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender, and nationality.
On Thursday, 25 senators sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, urging him to prioritize hate crime investigations at the Department of Justice.
The letter stated:
As you have no doubt seen, there has been an alarming increase in bias-motivated violence in our country. Many members of racial, ethnic and religious minority communities, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, live in very real fear for their safety. They are scared, and it is incumbent upon you as our nation’s chief law enforcement officer to demonstrate to them and all Americans that discrimination and violence against any individual because of who they are, how they worship, or who they love will not be tolerated in our country.