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US gurdwara shooting suspect described as tall, bald with 9/11 tattoo
Clean Media Correspondent
Oak Creek (USA), August 06 (CMC) Authorities said a tall, bald, white man in his 40s opened fire just before services had begun, entering the kitchen at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in suburban Milwaukee at about 10:30am CDT (1530 GMT) as women prepared a Sunday meal, sending worshippers fleeing to escape the barrage.
The gunman killed six people and critically wounded three at a Sikh temple before police shot him dead in an attack authorities are treating as an act of domestic terrorism.
Some witnesses said he had a 9/11 tattoo, marking the September 11, 2001 attacks by Islamic militants.
"He had tattoos, I don't know what the exact markings were, or if they represented any of his beliefs or what they stood for," said Thomas Ahern, a spokesman for the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Four people were shot dead inside the sprawling temple. Three more, including the gunman, were killed outside.
The gunman ambushed and shot a police officer who was responding to a 911 call and helping a shooting victim, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said. A second officer shot and killed the gunman.
The wounded officer, a 20-year veteran, was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive. Hospital officials said two other victims, also in critical condition, were being treated.
The FBI has begun investigating Sunday's attack on a gurdwara in a Milwaukee suburb that left seven people dead, including the shooter, as an act of domestic terrorism but no motive has been determined.
FBI officials also confirmed Sunday night that they are investigating a home in Cudahy, Wisconsin - presumably that of the shooter - in relation to the incident, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The FBI said on Sunday it had joined a probe of a shooting at the suburban Sikh temple, that left seven people dead, including the gunman.
"The FBI is working closely with the Oak Creek Police Department and other local and federal agencies to investigate today's shooting incident," FBI Milwaukee Special Agent in Charge Teresa Carlson said in a statement.
Authorities did not release the name of the suspect. They said the shooter had used a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, which was recovered at the scene. Officials were tracing origin of the weapon, Ahern said.
Police surrounded and searched a gray, two-storey house in the Cudahy neighborhood, presumed to be the residence of the gunman on Sunday evening.
Generators and floodlights were set up along the middle-class block.
A police source confirmed that a search warrant had been issued for the house, and a bomb squad was on the scene.
Temple member and US Army Reserve combat medic Jagpal Singh, 29, said people who were at the service when the shooting broke out described to him a scene of chaos and confusion.
Worshippers scrambled to escape the gunfire, but some tragically ran in the wrong direction. Others survived the rampage by locking themselves in bathrooms, he said.
Singh said eyewitnesses described the shooter as a white man who was either shave-headed or bald.
A man who dropped his father off at the temple, known to Sikhs as a "gurudwara," said he saw the shooter -- described as a tall white man with a bald head -- kill two people in the parking lot.
"Then he went down inside the temple and then went into the room where the holy scripture is kept and basically shot more people there, multiple people there," said Singh, a combat medic in the US Army reserve.
Witnesses told Singh it was "a horrible place, a lot of blood and basically screams of everybody. Children, women, everybody. It was chaotic inside. People didn't know what was going on."
"Our priest, he's dead. One of my friends' grandfathers, he's dead. It's a very close-knit community. No matter who's hurt, we're all family," Harinder Kaur, a 22-year-old student, told Clean Media.
Factory worker Navreet Raman, 42, said: "It's terrorizing. It's our worship place. If church is not a safe place, what is? Nothing is safe."
Raman said it had been lucky that the shooting had taken place at 10:30am (1530 GMT) -- in the morning -- as the temple would later have been crowded with more than 300 people for afternoon services.
US gurdwara shooting suspect described as tall, bald with 9/11 tattoo
Oak Creek (USA), August 06 (CMC) Authorities said a tall, bald, white man in his 40s opened fire just before services had begun, entering the kitchen at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in suburban Milwaukee at about 10:30am CDT (1530 GMT) as women prepared a Sunday meal, sending worshippers fleeing to escape the barrage.
The gunman killed six people and critically wounded three at a Sikh temple before police shot him dead in an attack authorities are treating as an act of domestic terrorism.
Some witnesses said he had a 9/11 tattoo, marking the September 11, 2001 attacks by Islamic militants.
"He had tattoos, I don't know what the exact markings were, or if they represented any of his beliefs or what they stood for," said Thomas Ahern, a spokesman for the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Four people were shot dead inside the sprawling temple. Three more, including the gunman, were killed outside.
The gunman ambushed and shot a police officer who was responding to a 911 call and helping a shooting victim, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said. A second officer shot and killed the gunman.
The wounded officer, a 20-year veteran, was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive. Hospital officials said two other victims, also in critical condition, were being treated.
The FBI has begun investigating Sunday's attack on a gurdwara in a Milwaukee suburb that left seven people dead, including the shooter, as an act of domestic terrorism but no motive has been determined.
FBI officials also confirmed Sunday night that they are investigating a home in Cudahy, Wisconsin - presumably that of the shooter - in relation to the incident, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The FBI said on Sunday it had joined a probe of a shooting at the suburban Sikh temple, that left seven people dead, including the gunman.
"The FBI is working closely with the Oak Creek Police Department and other local and federal agencies to investigate today's shooting incident," FBI Milwaukee Special Agent in Charge Teresa Carlson said in a statement.
Authorities did not release the name of the suspect. They said the shooter had used a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, which was recovered at the scene. Officials were tracing origin of the weapon, Ahern said.
Police surrounded and searched a gray, two-storey house in the Cudahy neighborhood, presumed to be the residence of the gunman on Sunday evening.
Generators and floodlights were set up along the middle-class block.
A police source confirmed that a search warrant had been issued for the house, and a bomb squad was on the scene.
Temple member and US Army Reserve combat medic Jagpal Singh, 29, said people who were at the service when the shooting broke out described to him a scene of chaos and confusion.
Worshippers scrambled to escape the gunfire, but some tragically ran in the wrong direction. Others survived the rampage by locking themselves in bathrooms, he said.
Singh said eyewitnesses described the shooter as a white man who was either shave-headed or bald.
A man who dropped his father off at the temple, known to Sikhs as a "gurudwara," said he saw the shooter -- described as a tall white man with a bald head -- kill two people in the parking lot.
"Then he went down inside the temple and then went into the room where the holy scripture is kept and basically shot more people there, multiple people there," said Singh, a combat medic in the US Army reserve.
Witnesses told Singh it was "a horrible place, a lot of blood and basically screams of everybody. Children, women, everybody. It was chaotic inside. People didn't know what was going on."
"Our priest, he's dead. One of my friends' grandfathers, he's dead. It's a very close-knit community. No matter who's hurt, we're all family," Harinder Kaur, a 22-year-old student, told Clean Media.
Factory worker Navreet Raman, 42, said: "It's terrorizing. It's our worship place. If church is not a safe place, what is? Nothing is safe."
Raman said it had been lucky that the shooting had taken place at 10:30am (1530 GMT) -- in the morning -- as the temple would later have been crowded with more than 300 people for afternoon services.
This is most unfortunate!
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