Freight trucks travel northbound on Interstate 5 Highway in September 2025, in Tracy, Calif. Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP hide caption
Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
A Punjabi Sikh truck driver in Wyoming said he was followed into a bathroom and stabbed repeatedly in an attack that has stoked fear across the greater South Asian community.
In an interview with NPR, the driver Singh said he was shaken by the violent encounter from earlier this week, which he described as unprovoked. Singh asked to only be identified by his last name due to fear for his safety.
" I don't know why this happened," he said from his hospital room. "I don't know why they attack[ed] me."
Early Sunday morning, on his way to Pennsylvania, Singh said he parked at a rest area in south Wyoming to use the bathroom. He added that he had visited the rest stop many times in the past without any problems.
As he walked inside, Singh said he sensed another man following behind him. Moments later, Singh said the man began to beat him before pulling out a knife and stabbing him multiple times around his body, including his neck. The attacker then fled and Singh stepped outside before collapsing onto the pavement, he recalled.
Singh said his life was saved by a Hispanic family, who just so happened to be at the rest area. He said the family tried to attend to his wounds and seek medical help.
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" They [gave] me the second life," he said.
As of Wednesday night, Singh remained in the hospital, with multiple lacerations and injuries to his chest and rib, he added.
Local law enforcement have since arrested Andrew Kris Bzdak, 45, and charged him with attempted first-degree murder, according to charging documents first reported by Cowboy State Daily. The documents did not state a motive, the outlet said.
The Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office and the local prosecutor did not immediately respond to requests for additional information.
The attack in Wyoming comes amid a significant national rise in hateful rhetoric targeting South Asians, according to Stop AAPI Hate, a group that tracks hate acts against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
A recent example came last week when the Department of Homeland Security posted an image on social media depicting an Indian man with the words "Get off our roads, you don't know how to drive Mr. Singh."
In a statement, the DHS told NPR that the image depicted Harjinder Singh, an Indian immigrant and truck driver who was accused of making an illegal U-turn and causing a fatal crash in Florida last year.
"Harjinder Singh is an illegal alien from India who should never have been in our country," DHS said in its statement.
The post was removed from social media the next day, following swift backlash from political leaders and advocacy groups that criticized the image as racist and dehumanizing to an entire community of people with the last name Singh, which is common among people practicing the Sikh religion.
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"The Sheriff's Office has said there is no known motive at this time, but we cannot separate this incident from the climate in which it happened," said Jasjit Singh, an attorney and director of legal services at the Jakara Movement, a California-based organization that serves the Punjabi Sikh community and has been providing support to the victim.
"When our own federal government uses a Sikh name and image to tell people like us that they do not belong on America's roads, our community has every reason to be concerned about the environment that kind of rhetoric creates," he added. Singh recently visited the Wyoming victim in person.
When asked about the Wyoming attack, the DHS said the agency will not speculate on motives, adding, "Any attempt to blame DHS for an unrelated attack is RECKLESS and FALSE."
In a report published this month, Stop AAPI Hate found that slurs used online against South Asians rose by 109% between January 2023 and December 2025. The report found that the rise in anti-South Asian rhetoric was fueled by the Florida truck crash, President Trump's re-election, debates over H-1B visas, and Zohran Mamdani's New York City mayoral campaign.
Raman Dhillon, the head of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association, said since the attack, truck drivers have reached out to him with concerns about their own safety.
"It's on everybody's mind," he said. "We never thought in this country that we will ever gonna think about things like this."
Singh, who lives in Sacramento and has been a truck driver for three years, said he was aware of the rhetoric targeting his community. Although it worried him, Singh said it didn't stop him from working because he needed the income.
As he recovers in the hospital, Singh said he was stressed about medical bills and missing days of work.
"I am scared and also upset because I have [to] work regularly" he said.
Singh said he was also fearful for other Sikh truck drivers. " I am just worried … it can happen again," he said.
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