NORTH NATOMAS, California, USA—The murder of a young Sikh boy, Gurnoor Singh, a student at Inderkum High School (North Natomas) has been described “as a bit of a head-scratcher” by police, after he was found shot dead in the garage of a house of a family friend. Police are currently unaware of what events might caused this crime to have been committed.

Gurnoor, 17 years of age, was found dead when police responded to a report of a shooting on Tuesday night this week, at 10.40pm.

Some members of the Sikh community have fears that this could be the beginning of a wave of hate crime misdirected at Sikhs, due to victory of Donald Trump in the American presidential elections yesterday.

Having delivered harsh hate speeches against the Muslim and Mexican communities during his campaign trail, Trump, now having come into office, has triggered fears of his supporters wanting to take law into their own hands.

Hate crimes in the UK rose sharply after the Brexit vote and similarly, many analysts have predicted a similar, if not worse expectation from elements of the American public who staunchly supported Trump’s divisive campaign.

Sikhs in the USA were the first to suffer violent attacks and murders after the events of 9/11 in 2001. Hate crimes increased exponentially after 9/11 and Sikhs bore a strong brunt of these due to their unique appearance, mistakenly being identified as Arab or Muslim by racist attackers.

The police in Natomas have stated that they have found no indication of the killing being gang-related and are continuing their investigation.

The area surrounding Gurnoor’s house is known to be a fairly affluent and quiet neighborhood and the shooting has come as a shock to the community as this time of crime has rarely occurred there.

His family has been too distressed to speak to the media as of yet and have refused to comment to media but have shared that they feel he may have been followed home from work before being shot.

If anyone has information about the incident, they are urged to speak to Sacramento police at 916-264-5471.