New York: A Sikh store-owner has been stabbed to death in the US state of New Jersey, in a third incident targeting the community in the country in the last three weeks.
Terlok Singh was found dead by his cousin Karnail Singh Thursday in his East Orange suburb store with apparent stab wounds, WABC TV reported.
The assailant had put a knife in his chest, Karnail Singh told the station. Terlok Singh had a wife and children in India. He owned Park Deli and Grocery store in the US to support them.
The Essex County Prosecutor’s office called the incident a homicide, reported ABC7NY.
WNBC TV reported that the police did not have a motive for the killing and had made no arrest as of Thursday evening.
A worker interviewed from a nearby petrol station said he found Terlok Singh’s body in a puddle of blood in the bathroom of the store.
Customers who spoke to the TV said the victim was “extremely generous”. One of them, Anthony Pointdexter, said Terlok Singh was a “great guy and never bothered anybody”.
Two Sikhs were attacked in separate incidents in California over the past few weeks, but they survived the assaults.
July 31 in Keyes, Surjit Singh Malhi, 50, was attacked by two men when he was putting up a campaign sign for Republican Congressman Jeff Denham, KCRA TV said.
Malhi said they shouted at him, beat him and spray-painted his truck with a white nationalist symbol and wrote “go back to your country” on it, according to the station.
Malhi said that his turban saved him by acting like a helmet and absorbing the blows. The police were considering it a hate crime.
August 6, Sahib Singh Natt, 71, was thrown to the ground and spat on by two people in Manteca, about 40 km from Keyes.
The police arrested two teenagers and charged them with attempted robbery, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon, but not a hate crime.
One of them, Tyrone McAllister, 18, an African American, is the son of police chief Darryl McAllister of Union City.
Earlier, an Indian woman, Sasikala Narra, and her six-year-old son were stabbed to death in another New Jersey town, Maple Shade, in March 2017 but that case has not been solved.