ASHLAND, KY(TIP): Monday, August 6, was a day Taj Sardar, the owner of a Shell gas station in Ashland, will never forget after an off-duty Portsmouth ambulance employee went on a racist rant on his Facebook page — even accusing Sardar as a terrorist.

Sardar says it all began Monday around lunch when the man came in to eat at his restaurant. He says the man ate, then left without a word being said.

When outside, the man then took a photo of his restaurant and took to Facebook to not only voice his displeasure with the food, but also the people inside.

Portions of the post read “I reluctantly entered to order Monday’s meatloaf special and was greeted by a tribe from India.” The post continues, “I’m ashamed that I probably just funded Al Qaeda.”

While WSAZ was at the gas station covering the story, Sardar left a statement with police because he says when he reads those comments he fears for his family’s safety.

The post has sparked outrage for many across the Tri-State, even catching the attention of the man’s employer at the Portsmouth Emergency Ambulance Services. That agency told WSAZ early Wednesday afternoon that the man has not been suspended following an internal investigation.

They later released this statement after choosing to not participate in an on-camera interview:

“We wish to apologize to anyone who was offended by those posts. We do not agree with, or condone, them and are in the process of handling them accordingly.”

WSAZ has the full statement in total at the bottom of this story. WSAZ has not been updated on the current investigation.

Sardar says his and his family came to America legally in 2006 and moved from upstate New York to Ashland in 2010 to open their store. He says although this is a black eye to the problems of racism, he knows that the good in the area overwhelm the bad.

The name of the ambulance driver involved has not been released at this time.

FULL STATEMENT

“At Portsmouth Emergency Ambulance Services, we take pride in the service we provide to our patients, but also in the way that we treat them. As an organization, we have an obligation treat everyone in our community with dignity and respect, regardless of their background or ethnicity, and we expect our employees to do so as well.

“We recently became aware that a member of our staff created several posts on social media that fall far short of that standard. On behalf of Portsmouth Emergency Ambulance Services, and all 650 members our team, we wish to apologize to anyone who was offended by those posts. We do not agree with, or condone, them and are in the process of handling them accordingly.”

(Source: WSAZ News Channel)

PITTSBURGH(TIP): A US district court last week sentenced Pennsylvania resident Jeffrey Burgess after he was found guilty of physically attacking Indian American Ankur Mehta and abusing him with racial expletives.

According to the sentence delivered by US District Judge Nora Barry Fischer, Burgess, 56, in addition to the house arrest and four months of probation, must also perform 50 hours of community service, undergo treatment for alcohol abuse and participate in a restorative justice program administered by Center for Victims.

Restitution to the victim will be determined at a later date.

Burgess, a resident of Pittsburgh, was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of violating the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in March 2017.

According to the indictment report, Burgess allegedly violated the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act by willfully causing bodily injury to Mehta because of the victim’s perceived race, color, and national origin.

Burgess pleaded guilty to causing physical injuries to Mehta in addition to calling him “terrorist.”

The incident that resulted in the sentencing of Burgess happened at a Red Robin restaurant in Bethel Park when Mehta sat next to him.

According to the statement given by Mehta, he ignored his assailant’s initial glances while sitting next to him and ordered for food, after which he tugged-in his headphones to listen to music.

After a while, when the music stopped, Mehta heard Burgess calling him a “terrorist” and hurling other vulgar slurs. He also said, “I don’t want you sitting next to me… you people.”

The victim, in his representation, claimed that despite him keeping calm, the atrocious nature of his co-diner escalated and, Burgess started physically assaulting, causing fracture and injuries to his neck and head, respectively.

It has been reported that this could be a case of Islamophobia as Burgess, before assaulting the Indian American, used anti-Muslim slurs and said “things are different now” — hinting at the change in administration.

LOUISANA (TIP): Chad Horsley who was arrested for ramming his pickup truck through the window of a convenience store owned by a Sikh American on March 3, admitted that he attacked the store thinking that the owners were Muslims.

Horsley first went to the Best Shop store on February 27, and identified himself as a sheriff to the clerk. Four days late, he returned to the store in his white pick-up and attacked it.

Police had posted the CCTV footage of the suspect on their official Facebook page on February 28, stating that the man who appears in the image entered the convenience store posing himself as a law enforcement officer and suspected the cashier of dealing drugs from the store. He left the store saying that he would be back around midnight to search the store. He also wanted the clerk “to make sure no one was around.”

Horsley did not return to the store that night, but on March 3, he rammed his pick-up into the store and took the ATM machine located inside. He also threatened Harjot Singh, a nephew of the store owner, with his firearm and fled the scene.

“We never thought anything like that, because everybody comes in, and they are nice,” Singh said. “This was the first ever incident to happen like that.”

After an investigation, police identified the suspect as Horsley, 27, a former Sheriff’s Deputy with East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.

In the statement given by to the deputies, Horsley said that he was under the impression the owners were Muslim. He said he hated Muslims for killing his fellow service members overseas and couldn’t bear to see Muslims prospering.

Sheriff Jason Ard confirmed through a Facebook post that the accused who committed an alleged “Hate Crime” has been arrested. He also added that there are different layers to the whole incident.

“There are a lot of layers to this case. It’s a bizarre one that started on February 27, 2018,” Ard wrote. “That night on the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, we posted images from surveillance footage. Those images were from inside a convenience store located in the 11,000 block of Louisiana Highway 1019. We were trying to identify the individual because he claimed to be law enforcement. He said he suspected drug activity and would return to the store to do a search. He left in a white pick-up truck. We did not believe that he had any current ties to law enforcement. On March 3, 2018, we received a call from a witness. The witness tells us that a man in a white truck drove into this same convenience store.”

Deputies searched Horsley’s home and located the white pick-up which was parked in a garage with the number plate purposefully removed. According to the police, the damage caused by Horsley to the Sikh-owned store is estimated to be approximately $4,000.00.

Horsley has been moved to the Livingston Parish Detention Center. He was booked on several charges, including hate crimes, simple criminal damage to property, criminal mischief and two counts of false personation of a peace officer.

As the investigation continues, his bond has been placed at $56,000.

Illinois (TIP): An Indian American Sikh Uber driver was allegedly held at gunpoint by a passenger who said “I hate turban people” and asked racial questions regarding his nationality and his allegiance to the US, media reports said.

The sheriff’s office in Illinois is investigating the assault on Gurjeet Singh, the Uber driver, who reported the incident to police on January 29, the Washington Post reported.

The advocacy organization Sikh Coalition says that the passenger pointed a gun on the driver and said, I hate turban people. I hate beard people, the report said.

After meeting with Rock Island County Sheriff Gerry Bustos on February 14^th the leaders of the organization expressed frustration, that the passenger has not been arrested since the attack.

Bustos told the Post that he expects to charge the suspect with aggravated assault and perhaps further charges by week’s end, after he receives information that the sheriff’s office has requested from Uber through a search warrant, it said.

Investigators have interviewed the driver, the suspect and another passenger who was in the car, Bustos said.

He said that the driver picked up the two passengers together in Moline, Illinois and began to drive them toward their destination.

The male passenger and the driver got into an argument, he said.

The argument was about where people’s loyalties lie. There was an argument over where people were from, he said.

The Sikh Coalition said that the male passenger started asking Singh, the driver, a series of questions: What is your status here? Which country do you belong to? Do you serve your country or do you serve our country?

Singh, a legal US resident who does not speak fluent English, said he serves the United States and India, because his parents live there. Then, Singh said, the passenger put a gun to his head and said he hated turban people, the report said.

A nationwide million-dollar campaign was launched by Sikhs in the US to spread awareness and address the collective misunderstanding over the minority community amid a spike in hate crimes against them in the country.

The “We are Sikhs” campaign was launched by the National Sikh Campaign (NSC), a non-profit organization.