(Image source from: Deccan Chronicle)

An Indian American Sikh man has been in a violent way assaulted in an alleged hate crime by a white man who pulled his beard, kicked, and punched him at a store on Monday.

Harwinder Singh Dodd, who was working at a convenience store in Oregon was racially targeted by the 24-year-old Andrew Ramsey.

According to a media report, Ramsey targeted Dodd because of his perception of the employee's religion.

Ramsey wanted rolling papers for cigarettes but did not have an ID and the clerk would not sell them to him, said Justin Brecht, a legislative policy adviser in the Oregon State Capitol and a former combat Marine.

When Dodd asked Ramsey to leave, he attacked him by pulling his beard, punching him in the face, pulling him to the ground and kicking him, Brecht said, adding that they held Ramsey down until officers got there, the report said.

"He was bleeding, he had gotten punched quite a bit in the face, and kicked on the ground and thrown to the ground very brutally. It was very serious."

Ramsey has been charged with a hate crime, assault, police said, adding that he threw his shoe at Dodd and tried to steal his head covering.

He was also charged with assault in the fourth degree, disorderly conduct, and criminal trespass.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, hate crimes increased by 40 percent in Oregon from 2016 to 2017.

In August 2018, in about a week, two Sikh men were brutally assaulted in California that elevated concerns over increasing hate crime incidents in the country.

Earlier this year, the South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) published a report documenting a 45 percent rise in hate violence and rhetoric against South Asian Americans, Indians, and Sikhs, and from the year prior.

-Sowmya Sangam