since the september 11, 2001 attacks, there have been scattered incidents of indian americans becoming mistaken targets for hate crimes. in one example, a sikh, balbir singh sodhi, was murdered at a phoenix gas station by a white supremacist. this happened after september 11, and the murderer claimed that his turban made him think that the victim was a middle eastern american. in another example, a pizza deliverer was mugged and beaten in massachusetts for "being muslim" though the victim pleaded with the assailants that he was in fact a hindu. in december 2012, an indian american in new york city was pushed from behind onto the tracks at the 40th street-lowery street station in sunnyside and killed. the police arrested a woman, erika menendez, who admitted to the act and justified it, stating that she shoved him onto the tracks because she believed he was "a hindu or a muslim" and she wanted to retaliate for the attacks of september 11, 2001.