Part 2: The Update On The Savage Attack On The Regan Sisters, Jamila & Aisha In Pittsburgh

Light Charges For Attackers, Station Closes, Charges Filed Against Protest Organizer & One Of The Attackers Is Arrested For Strangling His Wife

The picture above is an actual snapshot from the attack. Scott Hill, Balkar Singh and Sukhjinder Sadhra have been identified as the attackers and charged with simple assault. They were not taken into custody and will be notified of the charges through a summons.” -KDKA CBS PITTSBURGH

Does this look like a simple assault to you? Well, attorney general, Zappala stands by the simple assault charges he gave 3 of 4 men who were shown attacking the sisters, Jamila and Aisha. The attorney for the three men, two Indian and one white man say that race isn’t a factor. Yet, Scott Hill, the white man and owner of the station was conveniently absent from the interview. Scott Hill was is one of the two men who you can clearly be seen yanking one of the girls out of the store, pulling and holding her down by her hair as the other men repeatedly hit her.

This happened late September 2019. Not even two weeks later, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that one of the attackers, Sukhjinder “Simon” Sadhra was charged with ANOTHER “simple assault” and strangulation of his wife following a domestic violence call to his home.

According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, “When [Pittsburgh] police responded to [Sadhra’s] home, officers found a woman locked inside a bathroom with her infant daughter, police said. The woman, who identified herself to police as Mr. Sadhra’s wife, told officers he “choked her with both hands to the point where she couldn’t breathe…”

How many more women need to get hurt? In my first piece, I detailed the Regan sister’s attack from Sadhra and other men. Now, to hear that one of the attackers was arrested for choking his wife is an travesty! Perhaps if the charges were harsher from the Regan sister’s attack, another woman wouldn’t have been hurt.

These scenes was barbaric and frightening and there is NO way that these men would have been charged with simple assault if they did this to white women or the races were reversed and Americans need to acknowledge and fix this disparity!

This is the litmus test I use to measure injustice and inequity: Would the outcome be the same if the victim or perpetrator was a white and/or wealthy person? Until we can say yes, we have a lot of work to do!

It should be added that CBS Pittsburgh is reporting that the assistant district attorney has charged one of the protest organizers, Amber Sloan with misdemeanor harassment “for a video she posted on Facebook”. Scott Hill, has yet to make a public apology or statement for boldly beating Aisha and Jamila but he claims he’s scared to“to stay in his own home”.

I didn’t watch the Facebook video and I would never condone ANY person being threatened, but this seems retaliatory. There are conflicting reports if Hill or the attorney general’s office initiated the complaint against Ms. Sloan, but her efforts led to the station closing. The owner of the property, LGP Realty Holdings LP (LGPRH) terminated Hill’s lease and said they are looking for another tenant to serve the community. Exxon Mobil issued a statement saying they take the matter “seriously”, but did not confirm if they will terminate their contract with Hill (who may have a second location).

The attackers’ hearing date is unknown, but Amber Sloan’s preliminary hearing is on November 7th.

This situation sickens and saddens me. I am not new to this country, I have traced my ancestry back five generations to the slave owners whose surname my family carries to this day and it’s sadly verified in my DNA. I am indeed an African American aka Black woman.

I wish this was a nightmare and I’d wake up and I could return to my beautiful life where I could live, speak and move freely as a proud, American citizen. I wish I could walk with the confidence of having all the rights and protections of the Constitution and laws of the land. And I pray for the day I can simply exist without fear from vengeful retribution for having the audacity to act like I do, but that isn’t my reality or the reality of many Black and Brown people in the United States. It’s actually a “DREAM”…deferred” for way too long — and I’m tired of waiting…

In the final installment, I dive deeper into women and violence in America and my own experience…

Shout Out To Lacretia Wimbley from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for telling the Regan sisters’ story.

Here is the link to Part 1 — in case you missed it…

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