A 70-year-old Sikh man was brutally attacked with a golf club by an unidentified person in North Hollywood while he was out for an afternoon walk near his gurdwara in the Lankershim Boulevard area of Los Angeles.
A purported video of the incident that took place on August 4 went viral on social media, showing a disoriented Singh sitting on the sidewalk in a pool of his own blood.
As per a report, the elderly man survived the attack but is placed in medically induced coma. He continues to remain in a critical condition, unable to communicate and has suffered internal bleeding to the brain.
Singh’s brother, Gurdial Singh Randhwa, said the victim has undergone three surgeries in the past week for broken facial bones and bleeding on the brain.
In the viral video, the weapon used to attack can be seen lying at his feet.
“Brutally attacked. I don’t know how God saved him. He was almost dead,” Randhawa was quoted by ABC7.
Eyewitnesses to the incident and surveillance footage reported a well-built middle-aged man on a bicycle approaching the victim and attacking him with a golf club for no reason.
Authorities said that a suspect has been arrested for bludgeoning the old man with a golf club in North Hollywood earlier this month.
The Los Angeles police department, however said it was not investigating the assault as a hate crime.
“An assault on any one member of our community is an assault on all of us,” said Monica Rodriguez, District 7 LA City Councilmember, on the incident.
Earlier on Monday, members of the Sikh community in North Hollywood rallied, calling for more police protection. They also held a prayer meeting.
“The fact that this happened and no one came to stop it until the point that Singh was just left in such critical condition, absolutely has spread fear in our community,” Munmeeth Kaur, the legal director of the Sikh Coalition, said.
“We are asking, we’re demanding, that there be increased security in this area so that our community can freely move about and feel at ease to be able to be here, to be walking,” she added.