NEW YORK – A 19-year-old man was charged with hate crimes for allegedly attacking three Sikh men in two separate incidents and a 20-year-old man was charged in connection to one of those attacks, the Queens district attorney said. 

District Attorney Melinda Katz said Vernon Douglas, 19, of Brownsville, was charged Friday with robbery, harassment and assault in a hate crime for attacking one man on April 3 and two others on April 12.

In the first assault, a man identified by elected officials as Nirmal Singh, 70, was walking to the Sikh Cultural Society in South Richmond Hill around 6:45 a.m. when Douglas approached him from behind and punched him in the face, the NYPD said. 

Nine days later, a 76-year-old man and a 64-year old man were approached by Douglas and Hezekiah Coleman, 20, of Richmond Hill, near 95th Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard in Richmond Hill when the pair pulled off the two men’s turbans and beat them with “closed fists” and a wooden stick, police said. 

Coleman was arrested Wednesday and charged with robbery and assault as a hate crime, police said. 

“We will not tolerate beatings motivated by hate in the borough of Queens, the most diverse county in the world. Our diversity is our strength and no acts of violence will undermine who we are,” Katz said. “This defendant, along with his co-defendant, will be held to account for the charges of which they are accused.”

If convicted, both Douglas and Coleman can face up to 25 years in prison, Katz said.