In a shocking incident, a 22-year-old Sikh software engineering student has been stabbed to death by an American student in Washington in the United States.
The American student who is accused of stabbing him was reportedly upset over not getting admission into a university.
Gagandeep Singh, a third-year student who was also working as a taxi driver, was allegedly attacked by the 19- year-old passenger he had picked up at Spokane International Airport in Washington State on August 28, NBC affiliate KHQ reported.
The accused, identified as Jacob Coleman, has been charged with first-degree murder by Bonner County Sheriff's Office in Idaho.
The sheriff's office, in a statement, said Coleman flew from Seattle to Spokane to start as a student at Gonzaga University, but was denied entry upon arrival. "He became angry and began to have homicidal thoughts," PTI quoted the police as saying.
The university said it "has no record of an application" from Coleman, who reportedly left, took a taxi and asked Singh to drive him to a fictitious friend's house in Bonner County, Idaho.
He admitted to interrogators to "becoming homicidal" during the journey and bought a knife during a stop, according to the police.
Singh stopped the car in Kootenai city when he realised he was being sent to an inaccurate location. "That's when Singh was stabbed multiple times with the knife Coleman allegedly bought at the store, according to the sheriff's office and a criminal complaint," PTI quoted the police report as saying.
Gagandeep Singh, a native of Jalandhar in Punjab, had been living in Washington since 2003.
His older brother Balgit Singh said: "He (Gagandeep) was talking to my mom, he was a little nervous." They had spoken over the phone. "That was the last call from our family. So my mom's like 'well, if he already paid you just drop him off another 10 miles'."
He was quoted by KREM2.Com as saying that they lost contact with him soon afterwards and called 911.
A number of attacks targeting Indian-Americans have been reported in the recent months in the US.
In July, two Sikh-Americans were murdered in separate incidents within one week in California.
In February, an Indian was killed and two injured in a shooting at a Kansas bar. The accused in that case had screamed "get out of my country" before opening fire.
