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Wisconsin Sikh Temple Gunman Had 'White Power Links'
BBC NEWS, US & CANADA
August 6, 2012: US authorities have said they are investigating reports that a gunman who killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin had white supremacist links. Wade Michael Page, 40, who was gunned down by police during the attack near Milwaukee, reportedly performed in a far-right music group.
Five men and a woman died in the shooting. Three others including a policeman remain in critical condition. The FBI is treating the attack as a possible domestic terrorism case. Police chief John Edwards said they believe Page was the only shooter.
'Frustrated neo-Nazi'
American Sikhs have reported being targeted since the 9/11 attacks, because they are mistaken for Muslims as a result of wearing turbans and beards. The six fatalities in Sunday morning's attack at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin were aged between 39 and 84. Four people were found dead inside the building, and two outside. Page was also killed outside the temple.
Chief Edwards said police officer Lieutenant Brian Murphy, 51, had been tending to a victim at the scene when he was "ambushed" by the gunman. Lt Murphy was shot eight or nine times at "very close range", but was expected to recover.
Page also fired at a police car and ignored orders to drop his weapon, before he was shot dead by police.
A civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, has described Page as a "frustrated neo-Nazi". The organization said that in 2010, Page told a white supremacist website that he had been part of the white-power music scene since 2000.
He left his native Colorado and joined a skinhead band, End Apathy, in 2005, the civil rights organization said. Page also tried to buy goods from the National Alliance in 2000, a US neo-Nazi organization, reports Reuters news agency.
'Patterns of misconduct'
He opened fire in the temple in Oak Creek as dozens of people were preparing for a service. Page used a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, which was recovered at the scene and had been bought legally, authorities said.
US officials said Page was a former US Army member who was discharged for "patterns of misconduct" after being reduced in rank from sergeant to specialist. He was declared ineligible to re-enlist. He was reportedly disciplined in June 1998 for being drunk on duty.
A former psychological operations specialist and a Hawk Missile System repairman, he served in the US Army between April 1992 and October 1998, ending his career at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
On Sunday night, the authorities searched Page's house in the town of Cudahy, a few miles from the temple.
The Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek was founded in 1997 and is said to have a congregation of about 400 worshippers.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also a Sikh, spoke of his shock on Monday at the shooting. "That this senseless act of violence should be targeted at a place of religious worship is particularly painful," Mr Singh said.
Dozens of Sikhs have protested over the shootings in the Indian cities of New Delhi and Jammu.
Police in New York and Chicago said they had taken additional measures to monitor Sikh temples in those cities.
Wisconsin, which passed a law in 2011 allowing citizens to carry a concealed weapon, has some of the most permissive gun laws in the US.
The shooting follows the massacre of 12 cinema-goers by a gunman in Colorado last month.
