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Sikhs respond to shooting near Seattle with fear, disbelief

A man wears a head covering with the stars and stripes of a U.S. flag as he attends Sunday services at the Gurudwara Singh Sabha of Washington, a Sikh temple in Renton, Wash., Sunday, March 5, 2017, south of Seattle. Authorities said a Sikh man said a gunman shot him in his arm Friday, March 3, 2017, as he worked on his car in the driveway and told him "go back to your own country." Sikhs have previously been the target of assaults in the U.S. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as the backlash that hit Muslims around the country expanded to include those of the Sikh faith. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
A man wears a head covering with the stars and stripes of a U.S. flag as he attends Sunday services at the Gurudwara Singh Sabha of Washington, a Sikh temple in Renton, Wash., Sunday, March 5, 2017, south of Seattle. Authorities said a Sikh man said a gunman shot him in his arm Friday, March 3, 2017, as he worked on his car in the driveway and told him "go back to your own country." Sikhs have previously been the target of assaults in the U.S. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as the backlash that hit Muslims around the country expanded to include those of the Sikh faith. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) A man wears a head covering with the stars and stripes of a U.S. flag as he attends Sunday services at the Gurudwara Singh Sabha of Washington, a Sikh temple in Renton, Wash., Sunday, March 5, 2017, south of Seattle. Authorities said a Sikh man said a gunman shot him in his arm Friday, March 3, 2017, as he worked on his car in the driveway and told him "go back to your own country." Sikhs have previously been the target of assaults in the U.S. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as the backlash that hit Muslims around the country expanded to include those of the Sikh faith. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

By Associated Press 5 min read

KENT, Wash. (AP) – Fear, hurt and disbelief weighed on the minds of those who gathered at a Sikh temple after the shooting of a Sikh man who said a gunman approached him in his suburban Seattle driveway and told him “go back to your own country.”

“Everybody who is part of this community needs to be vigilant,” Satwinder Kaur, a Sikh community leader, said as several hundred people poured into a temple in Renton for worship services about one mile from Friday night’s shooting.

“It is scary,” she added. “The community has been shaken up.”

Authorities said a gunman approached the 39-year-old Sikh man as he worked on his car in his driveway in the city of Kent, about 20 miles south of Seattle. The FBI will help investigate the shooting, authorities said.

Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas said Sunday the department is investigating the shooting as a hate crime. He said no arrests have been made yet after the victim was shot in the arm but that he did not believe anyone was in imminent danger.