Suspects Sought In 3 Incidents

Rocco Parascandola

September 19, 2001

Police last night were looking for suspects in three separate incidents that investigators believe were motivated by anti-Arab sentiments, including one in which a 51-year-old man was struck in the back with a paint ball.

In that incident, Rihbir Singh, who is Indian, was walking Monday night at 95th Avenue and 113th Street in Richmond Hill when someone in a passing red Lincoln fired from a gun like those used by participants in mock war games, police said. Singh was not badly hurt.

Also Monday night, the Jordanian owner of a newsstand on Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood was confronted by a man who yelled at him and made reference to the World Trade Center attack.

Earlier that day, a merchant on the Lower East Side discovered that someone had scrawled remarks on his store urging passersby not to support terrorists by shopping there, police said. The nationality of the merchant was not immediately known.