Sikh tragedy in latest US shooting ‘embarrassment’
COMMUNITY LEADERS CALL FOR HATE CRIME INVESTIGATION INTO INDIANAPOLIS ATTACK
ANOTHER day, another mass shooting in America.
Last Thursday (15), Brandon Scott Hole, 19, who used to work at the FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis in the state of Indiana, shot and killed eight people inside and injured 60 before turning the gun on himself.
Four of the fatalities were Sikh – Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jaswinder Kaur, 64; Jaswinder Singh, 68; and Amarjit Sekhon, 48.
The New York Times pointed out: “Some family members of victims who were Sikh provided different spellings and ages: Jasvinder Kaur, 50; Amarjit Sekhon, 49; and Jaswinder Singh, 70.”
That is so Indian. Our elders are so vague about exact ages, spellings and birthdays.
Ever since the 9/11 attacks in the US, Sikhs have feared that with their turbans and beards, they were being confused as supporters of Osama bin Laden.
US president Joe Biden wants to bring in gun control, but his efforts are being frustrated by Senate Republicans.
“This has to end,” he said. “It is a national embarrassment. Who in God’s name needs a weapon that can hold a hundred rounds? Or 40 rounds? Or 20 rounds? It’s just wrong. And I’m not going to give up until it’s done.”
But will it ever be done? That Americans should be free to carry firearms is a concept difficult for the rest of the world to understand. Nothing much will change until Americans themselves learn not to live with the pandemic of mass killings.
Oscar Wilde set it out in The Picture of Dorian Gray: “They say when good Americans die they go to Paris,” chuckled Sir Thomas...
“Really! And where do bad Americans go to when they die?” inquired the Duchess.
“They go to America,” murmured Lord Henry.
HALF of the eight workers shot to death last week at an Indianapolis FedEx facility by a former employee before he killed himself belonged to the Sikh religious community, leading an advocacy group to urge a probe of possible racial or ethnic hatred as a factor.
The gunman, identified as 19-year-old Brandon Scott Hole of Indiana, died by suicide after the shooting in the facility’s warehouse last Friday morning (16), taking the toll to nine.
Media reports named the four Sikh victims as Amarjeet Johal, Jaswinder Singh, Amarjit Sekhon and Jaswinder Kaur.
“This is very heart-breaking. The Sikh community is devastated by this tragic incident,” community leader Gurinder Singh Khalsa said.
Two 19-year-olds, Samaria Blackwell and Karli Smith, as well as former Air Force officer John Weisert and 32-year-old Matthew R Alexander were also killed in the incident last week.
Komal Chohan, the granddaughter of Amarjeet Johal, said she felt “traumatised” by the attack. Several other family members work at the same facility, she said.
“My nani (grandmother), my family, and our families should not feel unsafe at work, at their place of worship, or anywhere,” Chohan said.
“Enough is enough – our community has been through enough trauma.”
The family of Jaswinder Singh, 70, told reporters he had only started working at the FedEx facility last week.
Harjap Singh Dillon, whose sister is married to one of Jaswinder’s sons, said he had been very excited to start working for the company and receive his first paycheque.
“(Jaswinder) was a simple man,” Dillon said. “He used to pray and meditate a lot, and he did community service.”
The uncle of an injured girl said his niece, who was not named, was sitting in her car when the gunfire erupted.
“She called as I was asleep at home. She said there was a shooting in the FedEx. So we just drove from Brownsburg,” her uncle Parminder Singh told a local newschannel.
She was wounded, he said. “She got shot on her left arm. She’s fine, she’s in the hospital now.”
About 90 per cent of the workers at the delivery service facility are said to be Indian Americans, mostly from the local Sikh community, police chief Randal Taylor said.
The massacre is the most recent in a series of US mass shootings that has again pushed the issue of gun violence to the political foreground.
Eight people were shot to death at three day spas in the Atlanta area in mid-March, raising fears that the gunman had targeted Asian Americans amid a rise in hate crimes.
Days later, a gunman killed 10 people at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.
Last month, US president Joe Biden announced plans to tighten gun control laws, including setting regulations for certain guns and strengthening background checks.
Paul Keenan, the FBI Indianapolis special agent in charge said it would be premature to speculate on the motive of the gunman in Indianapolis, who was a former FedEx employee.
Last Saturday (17), the shooter’s family apologised for the “pain and hurt” his actions had caused.
The Sikh Coalition said on Twitter that it expects “authorities will conduct a full investigation – including the possibility of bias as a factor.”
“We extend our deepest condolences to the victims of this horrific violence,” said Satjeet Kaur, the Sikh Coalition’s executive director. He said more than 8,000 SikhAmericans live in Indiana.
“While we don’t yet know the motive of the shooter, he targeted a facility known to be heavily populated by Sikh employees, and the attack is traumatic for our community as we continue to face senseless violence,” he added.
“Further traumatizing is the reality that many of these community members, like Sikhs we have worked with in the past, will eventually have to return to the place where their lives were almost taken from them.”
Gurinder Singh Khalsa, a businessman and leader of the local Sikh community, who said he was briefed by victims’ families, said the majority of employees at the FedEx site are Sikhs.
He said the FedEx centre was known for hiring older members of the local Sikh community who did not necessarily speak fluent English.