Gun man shoots Sikh American in Kent, Washington, in another apparent hate crime

The victim, 39, told to “Go back to your own country.”

In another apparent hate crime against Indian Americans, a gunman allegedly walked onto the driveway of a Sikh man and shot him after saying “Go back to your own country” in Kent, Washington.

The local newspaper Seattle Times reported, quoting Kent police, that the victim “was working on his vehicle” about 8 p.m. Friday when he was approached by an unknown man, and an “altercation followed,” and the victim was shot in the arm.

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“The shot resulted in a non-life threatening injuries,” said the city’s police Chief Ken Thomas. “However, we are treating this as a very serious incident.”

The Times said the victim “described the shooter as a 6-foot-tall white man with a stocky build,” who “was wearing a mask covering the lower half of his face.”

The civil rights group Sikh Coalition said in a press release on Saturday that the man, “who wishes to remain unidentified, is recovering from non-life-threatening injuries as law enforcement agencies continue their search for the gunman.”

RELATED: Indian American engineer shot dead in Olathe, Kansas, in apparent hate crime (February 23, 2017)

“While we appreciate the efforts of state and local officials to respond to attacks like this, we need our national leaders to make hate crime prevention a top priority,” the group’s Interim Program Manager Rajdeep Singh said. “Tone matters in our political discourse, because this a matter of life or death for millions of Americans who are worried about losing loved ones to hate.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, condemned the attack in a tweet. “Thoughts & prayer go out to the #Sikh man shot in Kent. I stand with the Sikh community & condem these acts,” she wrote.

The attack came less than 10 days after an Indian American engineer was killed by a former Navy veteran in Olathe, Kansas. The killer, Adam W. Purinton, told Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani — who survived with minor injuries — to “Go back to your country.”

The incident has left the Indian American community looking for answers.

Kent, a city of fewer than 100,000, is a suburb of Seattle.