On the evening of Aug. 26, The New York City Sikh Council held an interfaith rally and candlelit vigil in honor of 27-year-old Gurdeep Singh and 44-year-old MD Yousef. Attendees and organizers called for an immediate end to gun violence.
The gathering brought together Black and Brown leaders, local elected officials and neighborhood residents at the intersection of Crescent St. and Stanley Ave. in East New York.
Singh, a food delivery driver, was working near Crescent and Stanley when he was fatally shot in what police say was a road rage incident on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. Yousef, a fast-food worker, was gunned down during a robbery shortly after midnight on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026, inside American Best Wings & Pizza on Rockaway Avenue.
The gathering highlighted solidarity between Black and South Asian communities, with organizers calling for residents to work across racial, religious and neighborhood lines to address gun violence.
“We are in this together," said Renita Francois, New York City’s first deputy mayor for community safety. "Members of community, members of government, no matter what your role is, we all have something to contribute to community safety.”
Japneet Singh, president of the New York City Sikh Council, said the recent shootings continue to affect not only the families of those killed, but the wider community.
“The two people that did this are still on the run, so this is something that has to stop,” Singh said. “Not only two lives are lost, four lives are lost now because the men that will be arrested's lives will be different.”
