Gas station owners charged with assault of two Black women over pump dispute

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Two gas station owners and one of their employees have been charged after video surfaced showing the three men punching, pushing and dragging two Black women outside of a Pittsburgh gas station earlier this month went viral.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the two female customers in the video, who were identified in the criminal complaint as Jamila Regan, 25, and her sister Ashia, 27, told authorities that after gas spilled at a pump, they requested a refund from the store. But the request turned into an argument, which snowballed into a physical confrontation with the women and two of the store’s owners and an employee.

READ MORE: Gas station owners in violent video attack two Black women over pump dispute

Monday, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office announced simple assault charges against gas station owners Sukhjinder Sadhra, 35, and Balkar Singh, 40, and gas station employee Scott Hill, 50.

“Under no circumstances is it acceptable for anyone, regardless of gender or race, to be assaulted in the way that is depicted in the video and such behavior will not be tolerated in Allegheny County,” said Mike Manko, a spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.

Protestors say the punishment is not enough, and that the three men should face more severe charges, but Zappala disagrees.

“Open-handed hits to the back of the head repeatedly, but with aggravated assault, you need a weapon, you need bodily injury, you need somebody who gets hurt,” he explains. “The evidence, based on what I saw, doesn’t support aggravated assault,” Zappala told reporters Wednesday morning. “Aggravated assault, there’s a much higher standard and it’s almost the equivalent of third-degree murder. The police interviewed the ladies that were involved and they said, basically we’re fine.”

READ MORE: Protestors shut down gas station after two employees caught on camera kicking a Black woman

But Annette Regan, who was one of the local protesters demonstrating outside of the Exxon gas station and also identified herself as the sisters’ cousin, said the women are “traumatized.”

“Emotionally they’re terrible and physically they’re in pain,” said Regan. “They’re not feeling good at all. These are girls who have careers and jobs. One just got her associate degree and she’s back in school to get her bachelor’s. They’ve been through a lot and lost their mother to cancer years ago.”

at an Exxon gas station in Pittsburgh, PA. Store employees refused to give the women a refund after the stations gas pump malfunctioned and spilled the gas. pic.twitter.com/3jIjLqHdcf

— Michael Wm Gordon (@Migo360) September 22, 2019