Elderly Sikh beaten to death in latest New York anti-Sikh attack

UPDATE: The attacker Gilbert Augustin is now being prosecuted under hate crime legislation (31.10.23).

An elderly Sikh man has died after becoming at least the sixth Sikh to be subjected to a bigoted violent attack in New York (USA) since 2022.

Jasmer Singh, a resident of Queens in his late 60s, was driving his wife home from a doctor’s appointment on Thursday (19.10.23) afternoon when he was involved in a minor collision with another vehicle. The driver of the vehicle, 30-year-old Gilbert Augustin, reacted violently to Singh trying to call the police after the collision, and left Singh with two front-teeth missing and a broken skull according to his son. Singh later died from these injuries in hospital.

The news was first broken by New York community figure Japneet Singh, a candidate for state senate, who revealed that it was later found Augustin was already a wanted criminal sought by the New York Police Department prior to the killing. Augustin is now being held without bail whilst his charges for manslaughter, assault and aggravated unlicensed operation (at least, not including charges for other incidents he was wanted for) are being processed.

However, in what is set to cause outrage, African American Augustin is for now not being charged with a hate crime, despite witnesses reporting him yelling insults about Jasmer Singh’s dastaar (Sikh turban).

In a TV interview, Jasmer Singh’s son expressed disappointment about the missing charge of a hate crime, whilst also emphasizing the devastating impact of the attack on his mother who witnessed the killing. Many other Sikhs will share similar sentiment due to an ongoing issue of anti-Sikh acts in New York since last year.

In January 2022 Mohammed Hassanain assaulted a Sikh taxi driver at JFK airport whilst screaming insults about “turbaned people”. Three elderly Sikh men were targeted in hate crime robberies carried out around April last year in Richmond Hill, Queens, leading to US Sikhs mobilizing to create safety networks for the community. However, just last week a Sikh teen was attacked in the same district by a man referencing his dastaar and saying “we don’t wear that here”. Including Thursday’s killing of Jasmer Singh, the last five documented violent bigoted crimes against Sikhs in the New York area have been carried out by African Americans, which does not include previous incidents such as a random hammer attack in 2021 where a Sikh dastaar wearing man was told “you’re not the same skin”, which was also not taken up as a hate crime.

Local police affirmed that the recent anti-Sikh on the teen was part of a wider pattern of increased hate crimes, believed to be fueled by divided tensions stemming from the ongoing Israel genocide in Gaza, following a Hamas terror attack in the country earlier this month.

The Sikh Mayor of Hoboken Ravi Singh Bhalla,, in New York neighboring state New Jersey, also recently revealed receiving ongoing death threats. And in yet another sign of the anti-Sikh sentiment prominent in the East Coast New York area of the USA, Sikh orgs revealed that a recent viral bigoted post about Sikhs was selectively shared in the last week. On October 15th Conservative Republican media commentator user @Kevin_Smith45 shared an image of Sikhs at a New York gun range in an effort to suggest it was an issue of concern, resulting in a widespread global backlash against the Loud Majority USA host. Smith tried to claim he posted the picture to simply gauge reaction. However, Misl New York and Dal Panth New York revealed the picture was taken of the group partaking in standard Khalsa (initiated Sikh collective) training in May, and thus was shared this week amid the heightened global tensions, seemingly with the intention of stoking xenophobia.

Speaking on the issue, Sikh Press Association Senior Press Officer Jasveer Singh said:

“It is clear that an issue of bigotry usually only associated with white supremacists has also penetrated the African American community. This issue means those sporting Sikh identity are targeted solely for how they look by people who have a deluded idea about what it represents.

“Conflation of the Sikh identity with terrorism has been an American issue since 2001 at least, and it has cost Sikh lives. There also seems to be anecdotal correlation between portrayal’s of Islamic extremism in mainstream news and attacks on Sikhs across the world.

“This issue is made worse by callous and dangerous propagandists willing to push an idea that Sikh extremism is a threat in Western countries, a baseless allegation stemming from the Indian State’s effort to justify its targeting of the Khalistan (free Sikh homeland) movement“.

Humanitarian aid and community legal advocacy group United Sikhs are among various Sikh representatives pushing for the killing of Jasmer Singh to be taken up the authorities as a hate crime.

Media inquiries- media@sikhpa.com.