Graphic Courtesy Associated Press
OAK CREEK, Wis. (AP) -- More details are emerging about yesterday's deadly shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
Authorities say 40-year-old Army veteran Wade Michael Page walked into the suburban Milwaukee temple without saying a word and opened fire with a 9mm handgun that was purchased legally. They say he killed a woman and five men before being shot dead in an exchange of gunfire with a police officer.
The police chief says that officer was shot eight to nine times at close range. He's in critical condition.
Two other people were critically wounded. The dead ranged in age from 39 to 84.
The FBI says it has no reason to believe anyone other than Page was involved.
A civil rights group describes Page as a "frustrated neo-Nazi." The Southern Poverty Law Center says he used to play in heavy-metal, white-power bands called Definite Hate and End Apathy.
A defense official says Page served in the Army from 1992 to 1998, working as a repairman for the Hawk missile system before becoming a psychological operations specialist. The defense official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.
OAK CREEK, Wis. (USA TODAY) -- Authorities were trying to determine a motive Monday for a bloody attack on a Sikh Temple outside Milwaukee while Sikhs across the U.S. struggled with new worries about their safety.
On Monday an official identified the shooter as Wade Michael Page, 40, an ex-Army soldier who was reduced in rank before his discharge. The FBI was leading the investigation into the shootings Sunday in Oak Creek, Wis., that left seven people dead, including the gunman, and three wounded.
The official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information yet about the suspect, said that Page entered the Army in 1992 and was discharged in 1998. He said the man was reduced in rank from sergeant to specialist, but he gave no reason.
On Monday police roadblocks were set up around the temple to keep people away as helicopters hovered overhead.
Satwant Kaleka, 65, founder and president of the temple, died in the shooting. He was among four priests who died.
"I feel a fire inside me," his son, Amardeep Kaleka, 34, said Monday morning. He said his mother, Satpal, hid in a closet during the attack.
Amardeep Kaleka said his father, who had three grandchildren, came to the U.S. in 1982 with $30 in his pocket. He said he was found with a knife two feet from his body, indicating he was fighting off the shooter.
"My dad has always been a protector," he said. "He was a hero yesterday."
Amardeep Kaleka said he believes from what the FBI has told him that the shooter was "potentially" part of a larger white supremacist group "yet to be named or understood."
Simran Kaleka, 24, a niece of Satwant Kaleka, said she was just "broken."
"My whole world just fell apart," she said.
Federal and local investigators sealed off four blocks in the Milwaukee suburb of Cudahy, surrounded Page's home and evacuated neighbors as they searched for information about him. The neighborhood is about six miles from the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, scene of the shooting.
"We are looking for anything that can give us anything about motive and about who this man was," Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards told CNN on Monday. He said police were looking for booby traps at his home.
The Sikh rampage came two weeks after a gunman killed 12 people at movie theater in Aurora, Colo. Police in Aurora said that gunman, James Holmes, had rigged bombs in his home.
Edwards said the FBI will lead the Wisconsin investigation because the shootings are being treated as domestic terrorism, or an attack that originated inside the U.S.
"While the FBI is investigating whether this matter might be an act of domestic terrorism, no motive has been determined at this time," Teresa Carlson, special agent in charge of the FBI's Milwaukee office,said in a written statement Sunday night.
Police in New York and Chicago said they were providing additional security to Sikh temples as a precaution.
"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."
An Oak Creek police officer, one of the first to arrive at the temple following reports of gunfire, was shot several times, and a second officer shot and killed the gunman, said Bradley Wentlandt, chief of the nearby Greenfield Police Department, speaking for local police.
"The two Oak Creek officers who responded are clearly heroes in this situation today," Wentlandt said in a telephone interview.
"It stopped a tragic event that could have been a lot worse," Edwards said.
When the first officer was shot several times, Wentlandt said, "A second officer on the scene immediately engaged the suspect and shot and killed him."
Three people, including the officer, were still in critical condition Monday at Froedtert Hospital. Chief Medical Officer Lee Biblo said the three victims are all adult men.
Hospital spokeswoman Carolyn Bellin said one of the victims had gunshot wounds to the face and extremities, and another had wounds to his abdomen.
Wendlandt, who was designated by Oak Creek police as their spokesman, said the police officer who was shot was in surgery and doctors "think he's going to recover."
Among the dead was Parkash Singh, who had been an assistant priest at the temple for six or seven years, Gurcharan Grewal, president of the Sikh Religious Society of Wisconsin, told the Journal Sentinel.
Eight weeks ago Singh brought his wife and two children -- a young son and daughter, both under age 12 -- back from India to live in Oak Creek.
Police received several 911 calls about the shooting at 10:25 a.m. CT. Police found four of the dead inside the temple and three, including the gunman, outside. It was not clear how many others were wounded.
Ven Boba Ri, one of the temple members, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the shooter was a white male who was "not an insider." Ri called the attack "pretty much a hate crime."
Ri told the newspaper that the shooter walked up and shot a priest who was standing outside, then went inside the temple and began firing.
"Our hearts go out to the victims and their families as we all struggle to comprehend the evil that begets this terrible violence," Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said.
President Obama said in a statement that he was "deeply saddened" by the shooting and offered whatever federal support is needed for the investigation.
"At this difficult time, the people of Oak Creek must know that the American people have them in our thoughts and prayers, and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who were killed and wounded," Obama said. "As we mourn this loss which took place at a house of worship, we are reminded how much our country has been enriched by Sikhs, who are a part of our broader American family."
Sunny Singh, 21, of Milwaukee, said a friend pulled into the temple's parking lot, heard shots and saw two people fall down. The friend then saw the shooter reload his weapons and head to the temple's entrance, Singh said.
In Washington, the Indian Embassy was monitoring the situation and was in touch with the National Security Council over the incident, CNN reported.
A survey of Asian-American religions by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, released in July, found Sikhs are 1% of the nation's 18.2 million Asian Americans.
Sikhism is a religion founded in the 15th century by Guru Nanak Dev in the Punjab region of what is now Pakistan. It is among the largest organized religions in the world, with more than 20 million Sikhs worldwide, most in India. There are more than 120 Sikh temples and places of workship in the United States.
Sikh rights groups have reported a rise in bias attacks since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The Washington-based Sikh Coalition has reported more than 700 incidents, which advocates blame on anti-Islamic sentiment. Sikhs don't practice the same religion as Muslims, but their long beards and turbans often cause them to be mistaken for Muslims, advocates say.
Observant Sikhs do not cut their hair. Male followers often cover their heads with turbans - which are considered sacred - and refrain from shaving their beards. It is a tenet of their faith that uncut hair represents the perfection of God's creation.
But the turban also attracts violence to individuals and their places of worship. In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, four drunk teenagers set fire to the Gobind Sadan, a Sikh house of worship in Hastings, N.Y.
Kamaljit Singh Paul, chairman of the board of trustees for the Sikh Temple of Fox Valley in Menasha, Wis., said the local congregation had just started its worship service when he received a call on his cellphone from a contact in India who had seen the tragic news on CNN.
"We were shocked because Wisconsin, as a whole, is a very peaceful and friendly community," Paul said.
Menasha police increased patrol Sunday around the local Sikh temple on Midway Road after learning of the shooting in Oak Creek.
Bhagwant Singh Balli, a priest of the Sikh Temple of Fox Valley, was at a loss to explain the shooting.
"We do not have any enemies," he said. "If this can happen with us ... I don't know. My community is hurting a lot right now."
Rana Singh Sodhi of Gilbert, Ariz., had two reactions when he learned of Sunday's shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin: He asked for more Phoenix police patrols at local temples, and he thought of his brother.
His brother, Balbir, was the nation's first post-9/11 hate-crime victim. He was killed at a Mesa, Ariz., gas station by a gunman simply for wearing a turban.
"Tears came to my eyes," Sodhi, 45, said, speaking from the Guru Nanak Dwara Temple in Phoenix.
"Sikhs teach peace and to love our families," he said. "For somebody to go and kill people in a temple is very, very painful."
USA TODAY