Anubis
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Police are investigating whether an attack on a Columbia professor by a group of teens in Harlem was a hate crime, law enforcement officials tell NBC 4 New York.
Prabhjot Singh, an assistant professor at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, said he was walking on 110th Street and Lenox Avenue at around 8 p.m. Saturday when he was confronted by more than a dozen teens on bicycles who shouted slurs before attacking him.
"I heard 'Get Osama' and then 'terrorists,' and then the next thing I felt was someone moving past me, ripping at my beard and then hitting me in the chin," Singh, who is a Sikh, told NBC 4 New York.
Singh said he started running and was punched in the face and in his sides. His attackers continued to kick and punch him after he fell to the ground, he said.
Singh was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital Saturday and had surgery on his jaw, which was fractured.
Singh believes he could have died if good Samaritans who were walking by hadn't helped get the teens off him.
"There's no doubt in my mind it was a bias-related event," he said.
The attack, he says, makes him worry that his 1-year-old son, "who will certainly resemble a Sikh man," will face similar hatred as he gets older.
Singh wrote an op-ed for the New York Times last year about how Sikhs are mistaken as Muslims and haven fallen victim to hate crimes since 9-11.
"My fear is that they'll disappear into the neighborhood," he said of the assailants, adding that he hopes the community mobilizes to prevent similar attacks.
Sikh Columbia Professor Attacked by Teens in Possible Hate Crime: Officials | NBC New York
Prabhjot Singh, an assistant professor at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, said he was walking on 110th Street and Lenox Avenue at around 8 p.m. Saturday when he was confronted by more than a dozen teens on bicycles who shouted slurs before attacking him.
"I heard 'Get Osama' and then 'terrorists,' and then the next thing I felt was someone moving past me, ripping at my beard and then hitting me in the chin," Singh, who is a Sikh, told NBC 4 New York.
Singh said he started running and was punched in the face and in his sides. His attackers continued to kick and punch him after he fell to the ground, he said.
Singh was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital Saturday and had surgery on his jaw, which was fractured.
Singh believes he could have died if good Samaritans who were walking by hadn't helped get the teens off him.
"There's no doubt in my mind it was a bias-related event," he said.
The attack, he says, makes him worry that his 1-year-old son, "who will certainly resemble a Sikh man," will face similar hatred as he gets older.
Singh wrote an op-ed for the New York Times last year about how Sikhs are mistaken as Muslims and haven fallen victim to hate crimes since 9-11.
"My fear is that they'll disappear into the neighborhood," he said of the assailants, adding that he hopes the community mobilizes to prevent similar attacks.
Sikh Columbia Professor Attacked by Teens in Possible Hate Crime: Officials | NBC New York
