People telling me hero, what is a hero if I lost my job, says NRI

New York, Nov. 19, 2007
Mahesh Gupta

Last Month, NRI Amarjit Singh, 56, chef, saved psychologist Susan Barron life when Lee Coleman, 38, schizophrenic stabbed him to prevent from killing her.

Amarjit, chef, was preparing food at the Texas Smokehouse restaurant when Coleman entered and stole several knives before slashing the cook across the face and chasing him into the street. With blood gushing down his face, he made a split-second decision to rush back and confront Coleman as he plunged the knives into Barron's head, neck and body. He put his life on the line to save a fellow New Yorker. Off-duty transit cop Gregory Chin then shot and wounded Coleman after he refused to drop the knives.

After one month, NRI Amarjit Singh said:

"People always say 'hero' but what is a hero? It means nothing." Because, he has no job and doesn't feel safe in his own home. He never thought how it would alter his life.

He said:

• Now it's a very different life, I worked and I was happy. Now I stay at home all the time, thinking.
• I'm going crazy. I've no money, no nothing
• I want anybody to help me
• I lose everything and all day I'm at home. This is like jail because I don't want to stay at home all the time.
• I used to make $700 a week and sent money to his four children in India. Now they rely on relatives
• I lost feeling in the left side of my face and can no longer hear out of my left ear, which was nearly cut off.

The restaurant has been closed. He has not even been told whether he will get his job back if the business reopens. He is too scared to return to his rental apartment, just blocks from where he was attacked, so he now sleeps on the sofa in a friend's living room in Queens.

The New York State Crime Victims Board is paying his medical bills. He is s applying for workers' compensation but has no idea how he will live on the small handout.

City should be proud of Amarjit, hero at 2nd Ave. slashing

Sunday, October 07,2007, 4:00 AM
Nydailynew
Michael Daly

His sliced ear was hanging off his face and his blood was pooling at his feet as 56-year-old Amarjit Singh stood on the corner looking desperately for help.....Read More

NRI Amarjit Singh called hero when he saved Manhattan psychologist Susan Barron