A Willowbrook teen has been charged after he allegedly attacked a man in Darien, police said.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert B. Berlin announced Friday that aggravated battery charges have been filed against the teen following a road rage incident that sparked outrage from a Sikh organization that claimed the incident was a hate crime.
The Sikh Coalition claims the teen called the Sikh American a "terrorist," and "Bin Laden" before he "began beating and punching him in the face ferociously."
The organization released a statement demanding that the teen also face hate crime charges.
“You cannot address the problem of hate in this nation if you refuse to acknowledge its existence,” said the Sikh Coalition’s Legal Director, Harsimran Kaur. “This announcement is shocking and a completely unacceptable decision.
The coalition previously said the confrontation occurred when Mukker, a cab driver and father of two, turned onto Cass Avenue to go to a grocery store. The teen pulled up along Mukker and yelled "terrorist," and "Bin Laden," the coalition said.
"It's very frightening he had broken cheek bones," Mukker's father, Sadhu Singh Rihiraj, said after the incident. "He couldn't see anything."
