Sikh community is anguished and angry

RICHMOND HILL, QUEENS, NY (TIP): An 82-year-old Sikh man was assaulted during a robbery in Richmond Hill in Queens on  Monday , September 5 night. Onkar Singh, was walking around 9 p.m. at the corner of 112th Street and Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill, when two unknown suspects approached him from behind and punched him multiple times.  “I said, ‘Don’t hit me, don’t beat me. Take whatever I have. Take my money, whatever I have,'” Singh said. “‘Don’t beat me, don’t kill me. Whatever I have, you can take my money.'” He fell to the sidewalk, suffering lacerations and swelling to the right side of his face and chest. “They hit me in the chest; I fell down,” he said. “I tried to jump to the middle of the street…I had my phone in  my pocket. I don’t know if it slipped out, but they took it and ran.” Police say the suspects took the victim’s cell phone and fled in an unknown direction. Singh was taken to Jamaica Hospital for treatment and is now recovering at home.

He said he still has swelling in his jaw, and he will no longer walk alone, even in the daytime. “It’s very sad,” he said. “They are spoiled street boys. They don’t know anything about the value  of  life.” The incident sent shockwaves in the neighborhood, and the Sikh community members were fear stricken, as the  attack on Onkar Singh is the 4^th  such incident in the neighborhood during as many months.