Oak Creek, Wisconsin (CNN) — The FBI will investigate Sunday’s rampage at a Sikh temple in a Milwaukee suburb as a “domestic terrorist-type incident” that left at least six people and the gunman dead, the town’s police chief said.
Another three people were wounded, including the first officer to respond to the scene, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said. A second officer returned fire, killing the suspect, according to the chief.
All three of the wounded were in critical condition at Milwaukee’s Froedtert Hospital, spokeswoman Carolyn Bellin told CNN. The congregation’s president was among the wounded, his nephew said.
And another man told the CNN affiliate WTMJ, “Nobody’s angry here. We’re just confused. Was this a random act? Was this directed at us because of the way we look?”
Authorities have not identified the gunman by name, though Thomas Ahern, a spokesman with the ATF’s Chicago division, described him as a white male roughly 40 years of age.
Like other officials, Ahern said authorities have not determined a motive, adding “we are a long way away from that right now.” Teresa Carlson, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Milwaukee division, said late Sunday that investigators are still assessing whether this “might be an act of domestic terrorism, no motive has been determined at this time.”
The Sikh religion originated in northern India around 1500 and has about 25 million followers, 700,000 of them in the United States, according to the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Because of their customary beards and turbans, Sikh men are often confused for Hindus or Muslims — and have been the targets of hate crimes since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, said Surinder Singh, a spokesman for the Guru Nanak Mission Society of Atlanta. Read further in CNN
First report from CNN:
Oak Creek, Wisconsin (CNN) — At least seven people, including a gunman shot by a police officer, were killed Sunday in an attack on worshippers at a Sikh temple in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek, police said.
The officer was wounded but “returned fire, and that shooter was put down,” said Bradley Wentlandt, the police chief in nearby Greenfield, who briefed reporters. Investigators who picked through the building afterward found four bodies inside the temple and two other victims outside, plus the gunman, Wentlandt said.
At an afternoon news conference, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said that authorities are treating the shooting as a “domestic terrorist-type incident,” adding that the FBI will head the investigation.
Two semi-automatic handguns believed used by the shooter were recovered from the scene, a law enforcement source directly involved in the investigation told CNN.
At least three wounded, including the officer, were being treated at Milwaukee’s Froedtert Hospital, spokeswoman Carolyn Bellin told CNN. All three were in critical condition.
Edwards said late Sunday afternoon that officers “just were able to clear” the scene of the shooting at the temple.
Family members gathered outside the temple, or gurdwara, told CNN affilliate WTMJ that survivors were being taken to a nearby bowling alley for questioning. Amardeep Kaleka said his father, congregation president Satwant Kaleka, was shot and wounded when he attempted to tackle the gunman, and his mother — who hid in a closet during the violence — was too distraught to talk.
And Darshan Dhaliwal, another of the gurdwara’s leaders, said Sunday afternoon he wasn’t sure how many were hurt. Read more.
Editor’s comment: It seems that Sikhs have become innocent bystanders, of this home grown terrorism, victims of anti-Muslim hatemongering by extreme propagandists, who have a political axe to grind.
Categories: Americas
Reporting from BBC
At least seven people, including a gunman, have died in a shooting at a Sikh temple in the US state of Wisconsin, police say.
The attacker “ambushed” a policeman at the scene, shooting him multiple times, before a second officer returned fire, killing the gunman, said authorities.
The shot officer was among three men critically injured in the attack in Oak Creek, suburban Milwaukee.
Tactical police teams cleared the temple, or gurdwara.
Police said they believe there was only one shooter, despite initial witness reports of more than one gunman.
‘Terrorist-type incident’
President Barack Obama spoke of his sadness at the shooting, as he did after the gun massacre that left 12 people dead at a Colorado cinema just over two weeks ago.
At a press conference, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said they were treating the attack as a “domestic terrorist-type incident”, and that the FBI would take over the criminal investigation.
He said he could not release any information about the shooter, who local media reports said was a white male.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19138754
CNN TV just reporting that the suspect was a 40 year old tall, white male, who had a 911 tattoo and most of the victims were turbaned males.
Quoting from BBC:
Sikh organisations in the US say the community has been vulnerable since the 9/11 attacks.
“This is something we have been fearing since 9/11, that this kind of incident will take place,” said Rajwant Singh, chairman of the Washington-based Sikh Council on Religion and Education.
“It was a matter of time because there’s so much ignorance and people confuse us [as] being members of Taliban or belonging to [Osama] bin Laden,” he told Associated Press.
“We never thought this could happen to our community,” Devendar Nagra, 48, told Associated Press, “we never did anything wrong to anyone.”
Sikhism hails from the Indian subcontinent and observant Sikhs wear turbans. Members of the community have been attacked in the past by assailants mistaking them for Muslims.
“That turban has tragically marked us as automatically suspect, perpetually foreign and potentially terrorists,” Valarie Kaur, a filmmaker based in the US who has chronicled attacks on Sikhs, told the news agency.
Several hundred people turned up to an impromptu candlelit vigil in Milwaukee on Sunday evening for the victims of the shooting.
There are an estimated 2,500-3,000 Sikh families in and around the city worshipping at two gurdwaras and temples, including the Wisconsin Sikh Temple.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19143281
This most sad incident of ‘domestic terrorism’ in which 6 innocent worshipers were killed for none of their fault. The policeman on duty killed the gun man, alleged to be the attacker of the Sikh place of worship, called ‘Gurdawara’. This is all unthinkable to believe having actually taken place with the most peaceful members of the Sikh community.One could only pray and it is earnestly hoped that the FBI will be able to find out the background of such a shameful act and will administer the whole foul, evil game with tactful dealings and doing full justice so that no body does it again to ruin human society.
The notable aspect is that the police in USA gave the most deserving and logical farewell to the criminal, by shooting him on the spot.
Had it been Pakistan. The situation would have been totally different. The criminal will be given a heroic support. Even the people that are responsible of maintaining justice and law and order are not exempt from this illiterate, inhuman, un-Islamic discriminative approach.
What happened to the men that were responsible for killing almost ninety innocent worshipper on Friday prayer, captured by the Jamaat youths in Lahore Masjid attacks? Have they been persecuted and sentenced?
No they would have been sitting on the lap of the officials and being appreciated for the ” good” they have done to serve Islam.
Thinking this heart aches. It makes us pray even more.