Tooele police investigate pellet gun shooting as potential hate crime
Oct 27, 2022, 9:37 PM | Updated: May 21, 2023, 4:30 pm
TOOELE, Utah — Police said Thursday they were investigating a pellet gun shooting as a potential hate crime in an incident that left a man wounded.
Gurvinder Singh told KSL TV he was simply out in front of his home talking on the phone at around 11:00 p.m. Saturday when a driver in a pickup pulled up to the intersection of 100 East and Utah Avenue. (200 North).
“When he stopped, he said, ‘You should go back to your country,’” Singh said. “Then he shot.”
Before Singh knew it, he was hit around the ankle. He said medical personnel at the emergency room removed the pellet from the front of his leg.
“I don’t know why they (said) it,” Singh said. “I have like no problem with nobody, you know?”
Cpl. Colbey Bentley with the Tooele Police Department said because of what was said, detectives were investigating the matter as a hate crime.
He said it appeared the pellet was fired from a higher-powered pellet gun.
Bentley said according to witnesses, the truck appeared to be a silver or gray Toyota Tacoma.
Singh said he had moved to Utah from New York just four weeks ago to get his commercial driver’s license. He said he moved to the U.S. from India to escape persecution there.
“Like over there, it’s, like, the same people — like what you call racist?” Singh said. “That’s why I come here, so I will get a better life, you know.”
Singh was still trying to come to terms with why someone would do something like that.
“Maybe they don’t like people like us?” Singh said. “I don’t know why they do that.”
Anybody with information was asked to contact Tooele City Police Department at 435-882-8900 or dispatch at 435-882-5600.
