Los Feliz

Man Captured Vandalizing Los Feliz Sikh Temple, Threatens Witness With Razor

The vandal flashed a razor at the witness who filmed the confrontation as he made his threat.

A Sikh temple in Los Feliz was vandalized with a black Sharpie scrawling an angry rant last week.

The incident took place on the 1900 block of Vermont Avenue at Vermont Gurdwara, also known as Hollywood Sikh Temple.

One witness confronted the vandal and caught him on cell phone footage walking away from the temple's wall without any explanation.

"I said I was going to call the police on him at which point he said he felt threatened," Karna Ray, the witness who filmed the vandalism, said. "He said, 'I will slit your throat.'"

According to a Facebook post by Ray, the vandal flashed a razor at him as he made his threat.

Ray said the hateful message left on the walls of Vermont Gurdwara counters everything the Sikh community stands for.

One member of the temple hopes to invite the vandal to a service so he could experience what the community believes in.

"I would love to invite the person in the temple, make him, show him what he is missing," Sarab Gil said.

Gib said he would like to take an opportunity to show the vandal information he is not able to see to get insight on what misinformation he believes in.

Nirinjan Singh Khalsa of California's Sikh Council is in close contact with the Los Angeles Police Department about the case.

"This particular incident isn't a matter of swastikas and 'go home, ragheads,' which we get sometimes," Khalsa said. "This seems to be a diatribe by someone who may or may not be mentally imbalanced."

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