Sikh man shot and killed in broad daylight in Ozone Park, Queens, NYC, another in Maryland

June 28, 2022

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October 29, 2020

Two persons of Indian origin were killed last week in a burst of violence in New York City and in Maryland, according to media reports.

Satnam Singh was shot-dead execution-style in in a jeep in New York’s Ozone Park on Saturday, according to amNY media website.

In Maryland on June 19, police found Nakka Sai Charan was found shot in the head on a highway near Catonsville, NextShark news website reported.

The two killings in the span of a week come as fears grow over crime across the US and police did not appear to have any suspects in the two incidents.

South Ozone Park in Queens, where Satnam Singh, 31, was killed, is adjacent to another area also with a large Indian population, Richmond Hill that saw assaults on two Sikh men in April.

New YOrk Daily News reported that according to police sources they were not sure if that Satnam Singh was the target of the attacker because the jeeep he was killed in was borrowed from his friend.

The News said that detectives were considering the possibility that the shooter’s intended target might have been the jeep’s owner and Satnam Singh had been shot only because he was in it.

The News also said that an eyewitness they spoke to gave a different version of the shooting from that of the police.

While police said a man on foot had shot him, the eyewitness, neighbour Joan Cappellani told the newspaper that the shooter came in a car.

Another neighbor Christina Persaud, was quoted as saying, “Maybe he was targeted, but I don’t know.”

She described him as “very kind and quiet.”

NextShark reported that Maryland Transportation Authority Police responded to a call about a single-vehicle accident on on southbound Interstate 95 near the Caton Avenue exit and found Nakka in the silver Hyundai Tucson SUV at 4:30 a.m.

He was taken to University of Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center where doctors declared him dead, the website said.

A recent University of Cincinnati graduate who came from Telengana in 2020, Nakka, 25, was a software engineer in Baltimore, it said.

NextShark qhoted a statement from the Indian Embassy in Washington as saying, ““We have learnt about the unfortunate death of Nakka Sai Charan in the early morning of Sunday June 19, 2022 in Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore police has not yet revealed more details on circumstances of death, as investigation is in progress.”

It said that the the North American Association of Indian Students asked “officials — locally and nationally — to look into certain policies to ensure the safety of all students and young professionals who arrive in the United States”.

NewsNineLive TV quoted Nakka’s father N Naraskimha as saying that they did not want him to go to the US but “allowed him to realise his wish as he was particular to go to the US.”

In a trail of violence, in April, Dr. Madhu Subramanian, 38, was shot and seriously injured in Maryland in an attempted car-jacking, according to police.

Fox45 TV reported at that time that Subramanian, who was an acute care surgeon at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center was on his way to work when he was shot in Baltimore.

Also in April in Richmond Hill, NYC, two Sikhs had their turbans knocked off and robbed in two different incidents which police classified as hate crimes and arrested two people.

Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democratic Party majority in the Senate, and several New York leaders, including Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the attacks on Sikhs.

Hochul participated with the Sikh coalition in an anti-hate rally in Richmond Hill.

Schemer said in a statement at that time, “When a man is beaten and hurt because of his background, who he is, what his religion, his nationality and ethnicity [are], it is a dark day for America”.

Schumer added, “The lesson of our history is that we must fight it and speak out against it”

Sikhs have borne the brunt of hate crimes over the years all the way back to the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster in 2001. The community has been pro-active in trying to raise awareness about its culture and the fact that it is among the earliest immigrant group to settle in the U.S. since the early 1900s.