OAK CREEK, Wis. (AP) - The gunman who killed six people at a Sikh temple in
Wisconsin before being shot to death by police was identified Monday as a
40-year-old Army veteran and former leader of a white supremacist heavy metal
band.
Wade Michael Page strode into the temple carrying a 9mm
handgun and multiple magazines of ammunition and opened fire without saying a
word, authorities said.
When the shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in
suburban Milwaukee ended, six victims ranging in age from 39 to 84 years old lay
dead. Three others were critically wounded.
Page, who joined the Army in 1992 and was discharged in
1998, was described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a "frustrated
neo-Nazi" who was active in the obscure underworld of white supremacist
music.
Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the nonprofit civil rights
organization in Montgomery, Ala., said Page had been on the white-power music
scene for more than a decade, playing in bands known as Definite Hate and End
Apathy.
"The name of the band seems to reflect what he went out
and actually did," said Potok. The music often includes lyrics that discuss
genocide against Jews and other minorities.
Potok said there's no research showing white supremacists
hating Sikhs, suggesting Sunday's attack could have been an example of someone
mistaking Sikhs for another group, such as Muslims.
In a 2010 interview, Page told a white supremacist website
that he became active in white-power music in 2000, when he left his native
Colorado and started the band End Apathy in 2005.
He told the website his "inspiration was based on
frustration that we have the potential to accomplish so much more as individuals
and a society in whole," according to the law center. He did not mention
violence.
End Apathy's MySpace page said the group was based in
Nashville, N.C.
Joseph Rackley of Nashville, N.C., said Monday that Page
lived with his son for about six months last year in a house on Rackley's
property. Wade was bald and had tattoos all over his arms, Rackley said, but he
doesn't remember what they depicted. He said he wasn't aware of any ties Page
had to white supremacists.
"I'm not a nosy kind of guy," Rackley said. "When he
stayed with my son, I don't even know if Wade played music. But my son plays
alternative music, and periodically I'd have to call them because I could hear
more than I wanted to hear."
Page joined the military in Milwaukee in 1992 and was a
repairman for the Hawk missile system before switching jobs to become one of the
Army's psychological operations specialists, according to the defense
official.
So-called "psy-ops" specialists are responsible for the
analysis, development and distribution of intelligence used for psychological
effect. Fort Bragg, N.C., was among the bases where Page served.
Online records show Page had a brief criminal history in
other states, including pleading guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief after a
1994 arrest in El Paso. He received six months' probation. Page also pleaded
guilty to driving under the influence in Colorado in 1999 but never completed a
sentence that included alcohol treatment, records show.
Suburban Milwaukee police had no contact with Page before
Sunday's shooting, and his record gave no indication he was capable of such
violence, authorities said.
The FBI was leading the investigation because the shooting
was considered domestic terrorism, or an attack that originated inside the U.S.
The agency said it had no reason to believe anyone other than Page was
involved.
Page began shooting as several dozen people prepared for
Sunday services.
Satpal Kaleka, wife of the temple's president, Satwant
Singh Kaleka, was in the front room and saw the gunman enter the temple,
according to Harpreet Singh, their nephew.
"He did not speak. He just began shooting," said Singh,
relaying a description of the attack from Satpal Kaleka.
Kaleka said the 6-foot bald white man - who worshippers
said they had never seen before - seemed like he knew where he was going.
"We never thought this could happen to our community,"
said Devendar Nagra of Mount Pleasant, whose sister escaped injury by hiding as
the gunman fired in the temple's kitchen. "We never did anything wrong to
anyone."
Federal officials said the gun used in the attack had been
legally purchased.
Page was issued five pistol-purchase permits in 2008 by
the Cumberland County Sheriff's office in North Carolina, paying a $5 fee for
each. The sheriff's office declined to release his application form, which
requires another person to affirm the applicant is of "good moral character."
The forms also typically ask about military experience of applicants, who must
pass a criminal background check.
Page did not have the additional permit needed to legally
carry a concealed weapon.
On Sunday, the first officer to respond was shot eight to
nine times as the officer tended to a victim outside. A second officer then
exchanged gunfire with the suspect, who was fatally shot.
The wounded officer was in critical condition Monday,
along with two other people who were wounded.
Balginder Khattra of Oak Creek, said Monday that his
84-year-old father, Suveg Singh Khattra, was among the dead. Khattra says his
father didn't speak English but loved living in America.
Sikhism is a monotheistic faith founded more than 500
years ago in South Asia. It has roughly 27 million followers worldwide.
Observant Sikhs do not cut their hair. Male followers often cover their heads
with turbans - which are considered sacred - and refrain from shaving their
beards. There are roughly 500,000 Sikhs in the U.S., according to estimates. The
majority worldwide live in India.
The Sikh Temple of Wisconsin started in 1997 with about 25
families who gathered in community halls in Milwaukee. Construction on the
current temple in Oak Creek began in 2006, according to the temple's
website.
The New York-based Sikh Coalition has reported more than
700 hate crimes in the U.S. since 9/11 and has fielded complaints in the
thousands from Sikhs about workplace discrimination and racial profiling. With
their turbans and long beards, Sikhs are often mistaken for Muslims or Arabs,
and have inadvertently become targets of anti-Muslim bias in the United
States.
The shooting also came two weeks after a gunman killed 12
people at movie theater in Colorado.
___
Associated Press writers Gretchen Ehlke and Scott Bauer in
Milwaukee; Patrick Condon in Minneapolis; Sophia Tareen and Michelle Janaye
Nealy in Chicago; Larry Neumeister in New York; Danny Robbins in Dallas; and
Pauline Jelinek and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report,
along with the AP News and Information Research Center in New York.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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