Kent, WA (Diya TV) — Police in a Seattle suburb are investigating a possible hate crime after a masked gunman shot a Sikh man after telling him to leave the country, Kent’s police chief said.

The victim, a 39-year-old man, suffered non-life threatening injuries from the incident. He was working on his car in his driveway when he was confronted by the gunman and shot, Kent police chief Ken Thomas said.

“Some comments were made to the effect of ‘get out of our country, go back to where you’re from,’ and our victim was then shot,” Thomas said at a news conference. The victim described his shooter as a white male, around six feet tall and with a medium build. He was wearing dark clothing and was some sort of mask covered the bottom part of his face, Thomas said.

Thomas said police are investigating the matter as a possible hate crime, the FBI has been contacted about the incident. He said investigators believe the gunman approached on foot, the victim said he didn’t know the shooter and had never seen him before in his life, Thomas added.

The Sikh Coalition, a New York-based civil rights group, in a statement asked local and federal authorities to investigate the shooting as a hate crime.

“While we appreciate the efforts of state and local officials to respond to attacks like this, we need our national leaders to make hate crime prevention a top priority,” said Sikh Coalition Interim Program Manager, Rajdeep Singh.

“Tone matters in our political discourse, because this a matter of life or death for millions of Americans who are worried about losing loved ones to hate,” said Singh.

The shooting in Kent comes a little after a week of the Olathe slaying of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was allegedly shot and killed by 51-year-old Navy veteran Adam Purinton. Before he began firing, Purinton allegedly told Kuchibhotla and his friend Alok Madasani to “get out of my country.” That incident is being investigated as a hate crime by the FBI.