A Seattle court has sentenced a man to 15 months in jail for brutally assaulting an Indian-origin Sikh cab driver last year.
According to Sikhs civil rights group The Sikh Coalition, Swarn Singh was assaulted by passenger Rory Benson with a hammer during a routine drop-off on December 16th, 2017.
53-year-old Swarn Singh had stopped outside an apartment building to drop Rory Benson and his mother when Benson, who was sitting on the front seat, tried to suffocate the cabbie using a piece of cloth that he found in the taxi.
But when Mr Singh managed to escape out of the car, the attacker reportedly took out a hammer from his bag and ran behind the cabbie. He then hit him on the head several times, allegedly targeting his turban and eventually knocking it off his head.
The incident left Mr Singh with a scalp laceration and a skull fracture. Rory Benson who was arrested later pleaded guilty to the assault.
Mr Singh submitted an impact statement in the court detailing his injuries, its impact on him and the Sikh community as a whole.
The civil rights group claimed that it worked closely with the investigating agency to ensure they were “properly investigating the incident and reviewing appropriate charges.”
The United States is home to nearly one million Sikhs who have faced an increasing number of incidents of hate crimes since the September 11 attacks.
Sikhs living in the US experience an average of one hate crime every week, according to The Sikh Coalition.
According to figures released by FBI, over 6,000 hate crimes, including violence against Indian Americans was reported in 2016, which revealed about a five per cent increase in the number of such cases from 2015.
