A Punjabi Sikh truck driver from Sacramento, California, was stabbed 17 times inside a restroom at a Wyoming highway rest stop, leaving him hospitalised and raising fresh concerns among Sikh and South Asian communities in the US. The attack happened just days after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a racist tweet asking ‘Mr. Singh’ to get out of the country.
The driver, who is 28, has asked to be identified only by his surname, Singh, because of concerns about his safety. He was travelling towards Pennsylvania when he stopped at the eastbound Bitter Creek Rest Area on Interstate 80 at around 3 am on Sunday, 13th September.
Attacker followed him into restroom
Singh told NPR and The Sacramento Bee that he had used the rest stop several times before without any problems. This time, however, he said he noticed a man following him into the restroom.
According to Singh’s account and charging documents, the man approached him from behind, punched him and pushed him against a wall before taking out a knife. Singh said he was stabbed repeatedly in his arms, chest, ribs and neck.
Investigators documented 17 lacerations, including two stab wounds to his neck and two to his chest. Singh managed to fight back and escape from the restroom before calling 911. He later collapsed outside the building.
“I don’t know why this happened. I don’t know why they attacked me,” Singh said from his hospital room.
He was airlifted to Wyoming Medical Centre in Casper, where he remained hospitalised with multiple injuries.
Family helped after attack
A Hispanic family at the rest area helped Singh after he escaped. A woman reportedly heard screaming and other sounds coming from the men’s restroom.
The family then saw a man leave the building, get into a red semi-truck with a trailer marked “JKC” and drive away. They followed the vehicle for some distance and photographed information that helped police identify it.
Singh credited the family with saving his life, saying they had given him a “second life”.
Dash-cam footage from another truck also showed Singh entering the restroom, followed shortly afterwards by a man wearing a black sweater and blue jeans. The same man was later seen leaving the restroom and returning to his truck.
Wyoming Highway Patrol located the suspect’s vehicle near Rawlins, around 70 miles east of the rest stop, and stopped it near a Flying J. Andrew Kris Bzdak, 44 or 45, from San Gabriel, California, was taken into custody.
Bzdak has been charged with attempted first-degree murder. Prosecutors say he intended to kill Singh, but charging documents did not give a motive for the attack.
DHS post adds to community concerns
The stabbing has received wider attention because it came shortly after a 9th September DHS social media post featuring a brown-skinned, bearded man wearing a head covering and labelled “Mr. Singh”.
The graphic included the messages “Get off our roads, you don’t know how to drive, Mr. Singh” and “Self-deport or find out”, alongside an image of Transformers character Optimus Prime.
DHS later said the post referred to Harjinder Singh, an Indian national and truck driver who was charged over a fatal crash on Florida’s Turnpike in August 2025 that killed three people.
The post was later deleted after criticism from Sikh organisations, Indian-American groups and Democratic lawmakers, who described it as racist and dehumanising. Hasbro, which owns the Transformers franchise, also said DHS had used Optimus Prime without permission.
DHS has rejected any connection between its post and the Wyoming stabbing, saying attempts to blame the agency for an unrelated attack were “reckless and false”.
Sikh truckers report growing fears
The incident has increased concerns among Sikh truck drivers. Raman Dhillon, head of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association, said drivers had contacted him about their safety following the attack.
Jasjit Singh, an attorney and director of legal services at the California-based Jakara Movement, which is supporting the victim, said the community was concerned about the wider climate surrounding anti-South Asian rhetoric.
US Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi also condemned the stabbing and criticised the DHS post, saying hostility towards Sikh and South Asian Americans should not turn into violence.
A Stop AAPI Hate report published this month said online slurs targeting South Asians increased by 109% between January 2023 and December 2025. The report linked the rise in anti-South Asian rhetoric to several issues, including the Florida truck crash, debates over H-1B visas, President Donald Trump’s re-election and Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral campaign.
Singh, who has worked as a truck driver for three years, said he was already aware of the rhetoric targeting his community but continued working because he needed the income.
Now recovering in hospital, he is worried about medical bills and lost work. He also fears for other Sikh drivers.
“I am just worried … it can happen again,” he said.
Authorities have not publicly established a racial or religious motive in the Wyoming stabbing, and the investigation remains ongoing.
