Sikh boys say they were victims of racist attack at Walt Whitman Shops

Detectives with the Suffolk police Hate Crimes Unit are investigating a weekend altercation at Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station in which a group of teenagers allegedly attacked two 13-year-old Sikh boys.

Suffolk police confirmed the Saturday attack but not the identity of the victims, only saying that one was "struck with a closed fist" and that "bias comments were made."

In an interview Tuesday, the boys, accompanied by their fathers, described the attack they said occurred at 3:30 p.m. inside the mall as they wore traditional Sikh headwear known as patkas.

Chazbir Bedi Singh, 13, said he was punched in the face by a teenager, one of several who taunted him and his friend, Yuvraj Bindra, also 13.

Singh said he was speaking up because he thought of his 3-year-old brother.

"It doesn’t matter who we are, what you look like," he said. "You may be targeted for anything. I certainly don’t want to see my classmates at school being hurt for what they look like and how they’re different."

His father, Satbir Singh, 46, of Syosset, said he is a community activist who routinely participates in online anti-hate forums with Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and local police and political leaders.

"I do these forums all the time, talking about awareness, about these issues, about how to report hate crimes," Singh said Tuesday. "To have it happen to my own kid? I never expected that … But, I guess better me than anybody else. At least I know how to handle it, what to do."

The father said he intends to press charges against the alleged perpetrators.

Singh said he and his wife, Supreet, dropped the boys off at the mall. Both boys were wearing a patka — a youth turban notable for being tied atop to cover a bun of hair.

In the interview, the boys said one of the teens made a comment — intended as a religious or ethnic slur — at them.

"I told them to chill out," Bindra said. One of the teens immediately threatened him, he said.

The two boys tried to walk away, they said, but the group followed them.

"And I turn around … and little do I know this kid is about to punch me," Bedi said. "He walks up, he jumps in front of me and he hits me with a closed fist on the left side of my face."

Curran and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone condemned the alleged attack.

"It is completely unacceptable for anybody to be intimidated or attacked because of who they are, and we will not tolerate this in Nassau County," Curran said.

Bellone said he spoke with the Singh and Bindra families.

"As I’ve shared with the victims' family, any act of hate in our county is a mark against all of us and we will not tolerate this type of conduct," he said. "An attack meant to isolate and marginalize a community in Suffolk County will bear the full brunt of the law."

Officials from the Simon Property Group, which operates Walt Whitman Shops, did not respond to inquiries seeking comment.

Police, citing the ongoing investigation, declined to provide additional details.

"Part of me said, these are kids. Kids do these things," Satbir Singh said. "But then the other part of that, the other side of that, is: 'What if we let kids slide on this and let them go easily and what happens if they do something to someone else and something happens? If someone really gets hurt? What then?' "

Saranjit Bindra, 53, of Dix Hills and the father of Yuvraj Bindra, said Tuesday: "This was not just one comment that sometimes kids make and forget about it. They actually stalked them for some time, an hour or so, and actually punched one of our kids and another kid actually recorded it … Making people aware of this will definitely put some pressure on them from the sense this is not the right behavior."

With Robert Brodsky