(FOX40.COM) — California’s Sikh community is concerned about the risk of rising violence after a Sacramento trucker was brutally attacked at a Wyoming rest stop.
The trucker, a Sikh man from the Sacramento area, was beaten and stabbed 17 times at a rest area along Interstate 80 in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, in the middle of the night last weekend.
Jasjit Singh, the director of legal services for the Sikh community group Jakara Movement, visited the victim this week. He told FOX40 on Thursday that the man had been driving a big rig for about three-and-a-half years.
The trucker went to use the restroom at the rest stop early Sunday morning when another trucker allegedly entered behind him and attacked him, Wyoming news outlet Cowboy State Daily reported. Singh said the attacker never said a word and stabbed the victim 17 times.
Jasjit Singh, left, talks with the Sacramento trucker who was attacked last weekend in Wyoming. (Credit: Jasjit Singh/Jakara Movement)
“It was a completely unprovoked attack,” Singh said.
The victim staggered out of the Bitter Creek Rest Area restroom “badly wounded and bleeding,” Cowboy State Daily reported, before being airlifted to a trauma center.
Law enforcement tracked down the alleged attacker, Andrew Kris Bzdak, and arrested him less than 90 minutes after the first 911 call, according to Cowboy State Daily.
Sweetwater County jail records show Bzdak, a 44-year-old from San Gabriel, California, is being held on a $1 million bond. Singh said Bzdak faces a charge of attempted murder.
It’s unclear whether the attack is being investigated as a hate crime. Wyoming is one of only a few states with no criminal hate crime statutes, so Singh said the federal government would need to get involved with any potential hate crime charge.
Although the suspect’s motives are not yet known, Singh said that from the Sikh community’s perspective “it’s quite obvious that there must be some correlation.”
In the U.S., the number of Sikhs — followers of Sikhism, a religion founded in the Punjab region of India — is not known. The U.S. Census does not measure religion, and estimates range from about 200,000 to more than 700,000, many of whom live in California’s Central Valley. (Stockton is home to the country’s first gurdwara, the Sikh place of worship.)
What is more certain, however, is that a large percentage of Sikhs in the U.S. work in the trucking industry. Earlier this year, CalMatters reported that at least 35% of California truckers are Sikh.
Concerns about violence against Sikhs rose this month when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted a photo depicting a Sikh trucker and Optimus Prime — a picture that carried the tagline, “Get off our roads, you don’t know how to drive Mr. Singh.”
A group of Sikh American state lawmakers condemned the post, which was later deleted.
“For millions of Sikhs worldwide, ‘Singh’ is not a punchline or a slur,” the legislators said. “It is a surname carried with pride to signify equality. Generations of Sikh Americans have served this nation, built businesses, looked out for their neighbors and strengthened the fabric of our democracy. Our faith calls us to stand against injustice and practice seva — selfless service for the betterment of all, regardless of faith.”
The trucker stabbed on Sunday’s surname was also Singh, Jasjit Singh told FOX40, adding that the victim still feared for his safety in the aftermath of the attack and was not yet comfortable sharing his full name.
Jasjit Singh, who serves on the Sacramento City School District’s Board of Trustees, said his father also worked for years as a trucker. He said the attack on the heels of the DHS post has raised many concerns and fears for the Sikh community in California.
“Generalizing an entire community is never a good thing,” he said. “This generalization has put people’s lives at risk.”
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