US opens civil rights probe into Sikh man’s shooting

Washington, March 7 : The FBI along with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting of a Sikh man by a partially- masked gunman, who shouted “go back to your own country”.
Deep Rai, a US national of Indian-origin, was shot outside his home in Kent, Washington, on Friday.
“The FBI’s Seattle Field Office, in conjunction with the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, has opened a civil rights investigation into the March 3 shooting incident in Kent, Washington,” Ayn Dietrich-Williams, spokesperson of FBI Seattle Field Office, told PTI.
The federal investigation is in addition to a criminal investigation being conducted by the Kent police.
The FBI is investigating the incident as a hate crime.
“The FBI is working with the Kent Police Department and will collect all available facts and evidence to determine if there is a federal civil rights violation. As this is an ongoing investigation we are not able to comment further at this time,” she said.
The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity”, according to the bureau’s website.