Police probe Sikh beating, neo-Nazi symbol as hate crime
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MODESTO - Police said Monday that they are looking for two men who beat a Sikh man and spray-painted a neo-Nazi symbol on his truck in what they're calling a hate crime.
Surjit Malhi told KOVR-TV that he was putting up campaign signs for local Republicans at night when two men ambushed him, throwing sand in his eyes before beating him in the head, shoulders and neck on July 31 in Keyes, California, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of San Francisco.
Malhi, 50, said the men screamed at him to "go back to your country" before spray-painting the same message and a white supremacist symbol on his truck. The men were wearing black hoods and had blue eyes, he said.
The symbol the men spray-painted on his truck is the white supremacist version of the Celtic Cross, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
