Hate crime charge filed in assault of Sikh bus driver

LOS ANGELES – Prosecutors have filed a hate crime allegation against a man accused of attacking a bus driver wearing a turban in California.

Balwinder Jit Singh, who is Sikh, says a passenger beat him while calling him a terrorist and a suicide bomber last year in Inglewood.

District attorney's spokesman Ricardo Santiago says 34-year-old K.C. Tard Jr. has been charged with felony battery on transit personnel with the allegation that it was a hate crime.

Arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday. An attorney for Tard could not be located.

The 56-year-old Singh had just pulled over the Metro bus he was driving in Inglewood on Nov. 6 when the assault occurred.