Amarjit Singh is a 56 year old chef at a restaurant called Texas Smokehouse at 34th St. and 2nd Ave. in Manhattan. A few days ago he was preparing for another day at work when someone broke into the kitchen, stole a bunch of knives, and then slashed him as he tried to resist.
Singh ran outside to get help, but didn’t see anybody initially. Instead, what he saw was the same guy who slashed him, stabbing someone else:
Then Singh gazed back up Second Ave. toward the Texas Smokehouse restaurant, where he had been preparing for another long day as a chef when the bare-chested madman came in and grabbed at least four knives from the kitchen.
The madman who had slashed Singh and sent him fleeing down to E. 34th St. was now up at the next corner, repeatedly stabbing a 67-year-old woman outside the Gemini Diner.
Singh instantly made a decision that proved him one of our city’s very best and bravest. This chef from Queens by way of India became New York royalty as he forgot his own wounds and dashed straight back into the mortal danger he had just been so lucky to escape.
The madman looked up from the bloodied woman and rose on seeing the courageous Singh approach. A 25-year-old onlooker named Antionette Brown watched amazed as the madman slowly backed up. He was clutching at least four knives but seemed unnerved by Singh’s uncommon courage and selflessness, as if Evil were being vanquished purely by the power of Good. “He probably saved her life,” Brown later said. (link)
So let me get this straight. The guy was slashed, bleeding profusely, and UNARMED — and he faced down a knife-wielding psycho with four sharp knives? I’m speechless.
(An off-duty police officer later shot the assailant in the stomach after he refused to drop his knives. The woman who was stabbed survived, and was well enough at least to be interviewed by a reporter. And there are some other choice, “Only in New York” details in the New York Daily News Story… Thanks to Rajath Vikram for the tip.)
I’m confused.. so did Singh scare the guy off with his courage? Glad both Singh and the older woman were not severly harmed.
I’m confused.. so did Singh scare the guy off with his courage?
That’s what the Daily News suggests. “Courage” is of course a value-judgment; what literally happened in the attacker’s mind is hard to understand without the help of a psychiatrist (the attacker sounds like he’s seriously mentally ill).
Jo bole so nihaal!..
That must have been enough to scare the hell out of the knife wielder !
Amardeep you are on a roll… isn’t this like the 10th consecutive post? I love it!!
“He was clutching at least four knives but seemed unnerved by Singh’s uncommon courage and selflessness, as if Evil were being vanquished purely by the power of Good.”
hee. awesome.
Why didn’t Singh use his bazooka?
I second SFGIRL…love yuor posts Amardeep…I heart your intellectual wit.
Dari and SFgirl, thanks — nice to hear some positive words from y’all.
It’s not that I’m trying to take over, it’s just that my colleagues are hella busy with ‘real work’ so far this week. Rest assured, Ennis, Anna, Abhi, and Vinod will be back any time now. (I even hear that Cicatrix may be back from her epic honeymoon travels, and blogging shortly.)
Thats not quite the case right now. Hope the eye comes through alright.
I also find Amardeep’s pieces very well researched, sharp and witty. Please keep ’em coming!!
Amardeep, my congratulations too! Keep them coming, and I see that you’re covering quite a wide range of topics, and doing so quit well!
I’ve always wondered how, in a group blog, between all of you, when you’re all ‘active’, you manage not to generate more than one post on the same topic at the same time?
We need more people like Singh. He is 56 and still possesses a fighting spirit. Reminds me of the 70 year old veteran who gave a would be mugger a beatdown in a 7-11 type store.
Chin also acted wisely shooting the wacko once in the stomach calmly instead of losing his cool and raining down 41 Shots like some other nYC cops who are not in a fraction of the immediate danger Chin faced.
Do Sikhs still follow the five K tradition/rule? I do see a lot of Sikhs with kesh and kada. In that case, would he not be carrying a kirpan?
Do Sikhs still follow the five K tradition/rule? I do see a lot of Sikhs with kesh and kada. In that case, would he not be carrying a kirpan?
Ardy, There are no statistics on this that I know of, but most of the observant Sikhs I know do not wear a Kirpan on a day to day basis. (Others might disagree with me.)
BTW, click on the link to the Daily News — Amarjit Singh is clean-shaven, which makes it even less likely that he would be wearing a kirpan.
“That’s not a knife. That’s a knife”.
Singh’s nephew Bajinder was proud of his uncle. ‘He always tried to protect someone and do the right thing, he never cared about himself,’ Baljinder told the media. Singh has three grown up children.
Rediff Article
A good man.
bravo! this is such a stark contrast to a recent story I saw on tv about a woman who was raped and beaten in an apt. building whilst everyone in the other units heard and even saw what was going on. not one of them bothered to even ring for the police, much less come to her aid.
Some critique of Manhattan dogs!!
And also, by implication, of Manhattanites, the people who own them!
I read that the lady in question was taking her dog to the church to have it “blessed”.
Thats an interesting subject on its own, called the Bystander Effect or the Genovese syndrome
this is why indian restaurants are better. chilli powder and awful onion pickle are much more powerful than bbq sauce.
but seriously, this man has guts. me, i’d have turned tail before you could say julienne.
sfgirl, thanks for the link. never knew it was a known syndrome! interesting though about being less likely to do something when others are there.
chachaji, i think it was the feast of st. francis a few days ago. saw them blessing pets and other animals in lima, peru as well.
re SFGirl @ 18. That line was HILARIOUS. Can’t you just picture the little Brooklyn Scottish terrier going after the knife-wielding mad man? hahaha hysterical
what up dawg…
(never mind)
the age old confrontation of doggy style with the missionary position.
Thanks, WGiiA! I did not know that.
P.S. You certainly get around!
Anyone watch the 20/20 special on some prank caller posing as a cop who got a dumbass McDonalds manager to get a dumbass 18 year old employee to strip and then do humiliating poses and moves. Then the manager;s fiance was called in to do more of the same and then the fiance perv willingly went along with the caller’s suggestion to get a blowjob from the 18 year old employee. It took a 50+ year old NINTH GRADE dropout maintenance worker who refused to follow instructions to inform these other idiots that it was a prank call. The thing is no one did anything until that point to stop this idiocy. We live in an Idiocracy indeed.
The WORST THING?? The female manager won a million dollars against McD’s. Imagine the training manual’s thickness if it had to account for every freaking possibility. Thre are other clips of it too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqUm-Zk3_Ws
oh my god. truly inspiring.
This sardarji is heroic. Very few people will attempt what he had done. But should we be calling mentally ill patient madmen, psycho, evil etc. If this guy is mentally ill, obviously he does not know what he is doing. I think we need to be more sensitive to mentally ill.
ahem! ahem!
Yes, thanks to Rajath Vikram for the tip.
And ahem! ahem! thanks to me for providing the SAME tip in the news section 13 minutes earlier! grrr…
I want half of what you paid Rajath.
mg, could this be accounted for by the fact that Rajath’s headline was, ahem, more eye-catching? After all, his headline was ‘desi hero saves New York’! 🙂
Thank you for explaining why the New York Post has a wider circulation than the New York Times.
And technically, he didn’t save New York. The off-duty cop did. So much for truth in advertising.
DESI IN CAPE SWOOPS DOWN FROM SKYSCRAPER AND CAPTURES MADMAN ON MURDEROUS RAMPAGE, ORDERS POLICE OFFICER TO SHOOT.
How’s that? Better? 🙂
Well, I don’t know about truth in advertising, wider circulation, and all that…I was just wondering if the more catchy headline was why Rajath was credited with the tip! But still, I like your headline better. 🙂
Amardeep does a good job.
Amardeep makes a boo boo.
Less than 12 hours apart.
@Pravin #27..
the link about the prank call… I’m speechless..so when the interviewer asked the girl why she listened to the dude, her answer: “Because my parents have taught me that when an adult asks you to do something you don’t ask questions you just do it”…looks like they forgot to cover adults that might not necessarily mean well… sad …
stopby, very few newsreports not involving murder or mayhem have made me as mad as this report. Hell, I was furious with all parties, including the victim. The female manager who refused to accept blame made me so mad that I didn’t have much left in me to hate the prank caller as much I should have.
Holy shit. Bill Maher writes an article on the McDonalds incident and he USES THE SAME EXACT WORD I used – Idiocracy – to describe the incident. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/idiocracy_b_68102.html
Ha ha. I was going to write a blog entry on a political site about it with the same exact title and similar content. Damn, he beat me to it.