Man Charged With Hate Crime For Assaulting, Robbing Two Sikh Men In New York

A 20-year-old man has been arrested and charged with hate crime for assaulting two Sikh men on a street in New York city, stripping them of their religious headgear and robbing their money. Cops are looking for an unidentified second suspect involved in the attack that happened Tuesday.

The police responded to a report of an assault in Queens, New York, at around 7 a.m. Tuesday and found two unidentified victims aged 76 and 64 suffering injuries. They were then rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and are in stable condition, as reported by CBS News.

A preliminary investigation revealed that two suspects including the now arrested 20-year-old Hezekiah Coleman approached the elderly men with wooden sticks and beat them up while at Lefferts Boulevard and 95th Avenue in Richmond Hill. The suspects stripped both victims of their religious headwear and robbed their money, police said.

Coleman faces multiple charges including two counts of robbery classified as a hate crime, one count of robbery, one count of assault classified as a hate crime, and one count of aggravated harassment.

The incident was the second case of assault in the neighborhood on a member of the Sikh community in less than two weeks. A 70-year-old Sikh man was injured after he was repeatedly punched in the face by an unknown man in an attack that happened on April 3, NY1 reported. However, it is unclear if the two incidents are related.

Meanwhile, Nikki Singh, Sikh Coalition Senior Manager of Policy and Advocacy, said repeated incidents of targetted hate violence affect the entire Sikh community. The agency is in contact with the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force to combat and prevent hate crimes, he added.

"Sikhs are no strangers to hate violence, but the recent string of repeated attacks in the same location is especially disheartening and reprehensible," Singh said. "We continue to stand with all communities who continue to experience this kind of trauma. Targeted hate violence affects us all--not just those who experience it firsthand," he added.

Councilwoman Joann Ariola condemned the "reprehensible" assault and called the officials to take bold measures to make the city safe again. "Hate has no home here," she said in a tweet Wednesday. "This heinous attack on two members of the Sikh community- an attack committed solely because of victims' faith is detestable and sadly something that could have been prevented," Ariola added.