Three Sikhs killed in San Jose shooting

[Sunny]

By A Correspondent | February 24, 2004 02:30 IST

In an incident that has shocked the community, four men were killed Sunday afternoon when an unidentified gunman sprayed bullets at a group of elderly Sikhs who were playing cards in a quiet area of Overfelt Gardens park, in East San Jose, California.

Police reports say three men were killed, and three more wounded, before the gunman stopped firing.

The attacker was himself then killed in a struggle with bystanders who sought to restrain him and remove his weapon. Investigations are ongoing, said police, avoiding any comment on the reason behind the attack.

Police authorities have not yet released the names of the victims, pending notification of next of kin.

With the park, a popular meeting point for elderly members of the Sikh community, cordoned off, and police detectives working the crime scene, not much is known of the circumstances of the attack or even the identity of the gunman.

The San Jose Mercury News said while members of the Sikh community, numbering an estimated 150,000 in the Bay Area, felt it could be a hate crime, community leader Jaswant Singh Hothi, secretary of the San Jose gurudwara, said that seemed unlikely because he had been told the attacker was himself a Sikh.

Police spokesman Sgt Steve Dixon told the paper that there was no evidence to indicate this was a hate crime, and that detectives were still questioning witnesses to get clues into the motive behind the shooting.

'The whole community is in shock,' Mercury News quoted Balbir Singh Dhillon, vice president of the Sikh gurdwara on Quimby Road in San Jose as saying.

[Jaspaul Singh]

@

[DhadiMania]

@ :g :v :'(

[Guest mehtab]

http://headlines.sify.com/3102news3.html?h...riminal~history

Sikh gunman Ranbir Singh had a criminal history

San Jose: Court records show that 43-year old Ranbir Singh, who killed three Sikhs at a park in San Jose, and was then beaten to death by a crowd, had a criminal history.

This includes an arrest in 1996 for suspected abuse of the eldest of his three children. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery in 1997, for which he received three years' probation.

He was arrested again in 2001, when he and his wife of 12 years had a fight after he lost his job at San Jose International Airport, according to court records. His wife told police he had threatened to kill her, but she refused an emergency protective order and asked police not to arrest her husband, the records show.

Ranbir Singh was nevertheless arrested and pleaded no contest to making a threat, a misdemeanor, for which he was sentenced to 15 days in jail and ordered to complete a batterer's program.

He completed that program in May 2003 with high marks, although in earlier sessions counselors criticised him for failing to empathise with his wife or recognise the effects that violence has on children.

The court records also show that Ranbir Singh had a history of financial difficulties, including a 2001 tax case in which he was penalised for trying to claim a deduction and child-care expenses for his eldest daughter while she was in foster care.

Singh had walked u

p to the group of 15 men who were playing cards in the park on Sunday and hurled some abuses in Punjabi before opening fire on them.

Two men died at the scene, and one died at San Jose Medical Center, San Jose Police Spokesman Steve Dixon said adding they were aged 46, 65 and 70.

Three others have been hospitalised in Regional Medical Centre in San Jose with non-life threatening injuries, Dixon was quoted as saying by the San Francisco Chroncle.

Singh was dead when police arrived, probably because he was beaten to death, Dixon said, though the cause of death will be determined by an autopsy by the Santa Clara County coroner.

Sarwan Singh Gill, who witnessed the attack, said he was among about 15 friends who were playing cards at Overfelt Gardens in east San Jose when a man who was unfamiliar to them walked up to four of them, said something abusive in Punjabi, then started firing a semiautomatic weapon - first at the four, then at the others.

Gill escaped by hiding behind a tree. He said the shooter was reloading his weapon and began firing again when somebody tackled him from behind.

Dixon described the incident as "very much unusual," adding "These fellows play cards at this park regularly, and on typical Sunday afternoons we have never had any trouble before".

Agencies

[SaadhRayn Kaur]

Other news agencies reported that the suspect did not have any bruises or scratches so it's very unlikely he was beaten to death.

he probably either was suffocated, or he had a heart attack.

[S1ngh]

this what i got from my friend :

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He was not keshdhari. He worked at the San jose airport for about 2 months in May - June 2001 driving the shuttle for

company called shuttle port.

He was fired at that time. From the person he worked with said the person did not seem normal. He also worked a second job as a security guard and he was fired from there also.

He had threaten to kill his wife at once and was charged and jailed for about 15 days and put on 3 years probation. He did have an outstading arrest warrent for jumping probation.

What caused him to pick the group in the park; still a mystery.

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[Jkaur]

man dis is so

this is what is called kaljugh...