Tensions Flare Between Queens Sikhs and NYPD After Racially Motivated Hit and Run
Tessa Stuart
It was shortly after midnight on Wednesday, Sandeep Singh and three of his friends were crossing 99th Street at 101 Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens when they crossed paths with a man in a pick-up truck. Witnesses say the driver called Singh a "terrorist," and yelled at him to "go back to your country." Singh, a Sikh, stood in the truck's path to keep the driver from leaving while his friends called the police, but the driver gassed his pick-up into Singh, hitting the 29-year-old and dragging him some 30 feet before he came loose.
A week later, Singh, a father of two children and owner of a construction business, is still in the hospital. "He clung to the bottom of the pick up truck, so most of his injuries are along his back and his side," says Amardeep Singh, director of programs for the Sikh Coalition. At this point, he's had between 20 and 30 stitches, and Amardeep Singh says he will likely need a skin graft as well.
The driver, meanwhile, remains at large. The incident was captured by multiple security cameras and while investigators have been able to determine the make and model of the truck, they've had no luck turning up a license plate number, and none of the witnesses have been able to identify the driver through police photos.
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