A Sikh truck driver survived harrowing attack in which he was beaten then stabbed 17 times in a rest stop off a Wyoming highway on Sunday, according to news reports.

The suspected assailant, Andrew Kris Bzdak, reportedly fled the scene, before Wyoming highway patrol troopers arrested him, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Bzdak has been charged with attempted first-degree murder. As of Friday, he was being held at the Sweetwater county detention center on a $1m bail, according to an inmate roster.

“I don’t know why this happened,” the truck driver, who was identified only by his last name Singh for security reasons, told NPR. His lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment.

“I thought that now my final time had come,” the driver told the Bee.

The driver praised a Good Samaritan family, who tried to pursue the attacker and also brought Singh towels as blood seeped from his wounds, the Bee reported.

The motive for the attack remains unknown, said Jeff Sheaman, a public information officer for the Sweetwater county sheriff’s office.

Several prominent south Asian civic and political figures have drawn a link between Sunday’s events and a recent controversial Department of Homeland Security post depicting a Sikh driver.

In a since deleted post to X, DHS officials shared a movie poster-style image of a man with a bandana facing off a Transformer from the popular toy and movie franchise, with the words: “Self deport or Find Out.” At the bottom of the image, it also read; “Get off our roads, you don’t know how to drive Mr Singh.”

DHS officials responded to criticism that the post was xenophobic, saying it was a pointed reference to an Indian-descent truck driver who was accused of making an illegal turn before crashing an 18-wheeler into a minivan, killing its occupants.

Illinois congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said in a Thursday post on social media he was praying for the recovery of the truck driver .

“This comes amid rising hatred targeting Sikh and South Asian Americans, with even the Trump Department of Homeland Security recently posting a racist caricature of a Sikh truck driver,” Krishnamoorthi wrote. “Those spreading this hate, including officials in our own federal government, need to stop. Those who turn it into violence must be held accountable. And all of us need to stand together against both.”

In response to a request for comment about the Wyoming attack, DHS told NPR: “Any attempt to blame DHS for an unrelated attack is RECKLESS and FALSE.”