Davinder Singh

Lousa Mataele, 31, who is accused of fatally shooting Davinder Singh, a cabdriver in Red Wood City in California, pleaded not guilty to the charges before the San Mateo County Court on Nov. 5, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office told News India-Times.

Mataele is to return to the court on Dec. 17, which has been set as the date for preliminary hearing to determine if he will stand trial, the spokesperson said. He will remain in custody at the San Mateo County Jail.

Davinder was fatally shot in the head on Sept. 13 in what his colleagues described as an apparent hate crime. But the police said it was a robbery that went out of hand.

In a press release after the incident, the Redwood City Police Department said that they had arrested Mataele, 31, a Pacific Islander, as a suspect and recovered a handgun from his backpack.

“Suspect Lousa was booked into S.M. County jail on murder charges with no bail status,” the release said, adding, “There is no indication that this is a hate crime.”

The cabdrivers in the Bay Area, however, did not appear convinced and on Sept. 18, hundreds of them joined an hour-long cab caravan between San Carlos and San Jose to protest the killing and pledging to put an end to what they perceive to be hate crimes.

According to the police, Davinder was taking the suspect and another male passenger from a Redwood City home to an unknown destination. “The suspect attempted to rob the cabdriver of his money, and the suspect fired two shots into the victim’s head, killing the victim and causing the vehicle to crash into a parked vehicle.”

The suspect, the police said, fled the scene on foot, while the witness passenger, who was not involved in the crime and remained at the scene, provided the suspect’s description.

The incident was the third involving a Sikh cabdriver in California. On July 2, Gurpreet Singh of Hercules was found dead inside his cab with a bullet wound on his head. A laptop computer in the front seat, as also a gold bracelet and a neck chain, were left untouched, the police had said. Three days later, Inderjeet Singh was shot in the jaw when he went to pick up a fare near Roosevelt Ave.