Memorial Held for Victims of Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting

Posted August 10th, 2012 at 3:05 pm (UTC-5)
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Hundreds of mourners in (the U.S. state of) Wisconsin paid their final respects Friday to six Sikh worshippers shot and killed by a white supremacist who attacked their temple Sunday.

The mourners, many of them Indian-Americans, streamed by six caskets as pictures of the victims were projected on a large video screen. Sikh religious leaders led them in prayers and hymns.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the mourners that the American people stood with them in their grief, and condemned the attack that occurred as they gathered to worship last weekend.

“In the recent past, too many Sikhs have been targeted and victimized simply because of who they are, how they look, and what they believe. That is wrong. It is unacceptable. And it will not be tolerated.”

Among those killed in the shooting spree was the temple president, 65-year-old Satwant Singh Kaleka, and an 84-year-old worshipper, Suveg Singh.

The gunman, Wade Michael Page, shot and killed himself after he was wounded by police. The FBI says Page was a former Army veteran with ties to white supremacist groups, but investigators have yet to uncover an exact motive for his actions.