The US authorities have begun a civil rights investigation into the shooting of a Sikh man in suburban Seattle last Friday with the attacker, a burly white man, yelling at him, “Go back to your own country”.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, working along with the US Department of Justice, announced the action following demands from the New York-based Sikh Council and others to investigate the attack as a hate crime that provides for more deterrent punishment.
“The FBI is working with the Kent Police Department and will collect all available facts and evidence to determine if there is a federal civil-rights violation,” Ayn Dietrich-Williams, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Seattle office, said. “As this is an ongoing investigation we are not able to comment further at this time,” the Seattle Times quoted the spokeswoman as saying.