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New York: A 26-year-old man has been apprehend on hate crime charges in the US for allegedly punching a Sikh teenager on a bus here for wearing a turban, according to media reports. The incident unfolded on a bus near 118th Street and Liberty Avenue in Queens on October 15.
Police on Thursday arrested Christopher Philippeaux, who was conditionally released by parole in July 2021 after serving more than two years in prison, and charged him with a hate crime, had punched 19-year-old Mani Sandhu multiple times and attempted to remove his turban.
Police said on Friday that both men were riding on a shuttle bus on October 15 morning near 118th Street and Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill when the assault happened. Sandhu told sources that he was on his way to a Sikh temple in Queens and was about to get off near Liberty Avenue and 118th Street when Philippeaux approached the Sikh teenager on the New York MTA bus and said, “Take off your mask. He said it two times. and then he said….We don’t wear that in this country” referring to his turban.
The verbal assault was followed by multiple punches on Sandhu’s head and neck and in the back of his head, causing cuts and pain, the police said. Philippeaux, as seen in surveillance photos, then got off the bus and boarded it again in an attempt to remove Sandhu’s turban.
A Sikh man who recently entered the US claiming to be discriminated against in India was beaten up and assaulted in a bus in New York
Pointing at his turban he said "we don't wear this in this country" and then whacked him
NYPD has released a photo of the suspect pic.twitter.com/ipLabYLV05
— Journalist V (@OnTheNewsBeat) October 17, 2023
The Sikh teen Sandhu on Wednesday said he moved to the US 10 months ago from India thinking he would never be attacked here but “the incident happened with me makes me “shaken and angered”, and makes me like I’m not safe in this area”. “Right now, the victim is very distressed. The family is very scared for him,” said a media report.
The incident is being probed by the NYPD (New York Police Department) Hate Crimes Unit. Criticizing the incident, the US-based Sikh Coalition said on X that it is “deeply disturbed by an apparent hate-motivated attack on a Sikh teen”.
“I watched the video and I was angry, I was outraged, and just moved by what happened to the victim. New York City is a melting pot and it’s from my understanding that this gentleman has only been here for about a year, and this is not how we welcome people to our city,” said Shanifah Rieara, MTA’s Acting Chief Customer Officer.
