Shoot-out: Temple shooter was an ex-soldier, skinhead band member
Police identified the gunman who killed six people at a Wisconsin Sikh temple as a 40-year-old US Army veteran, and a monitor of extremists said he was a member of a racist skinhead band.
Oak Creek police chief John Edwards told a news conference on Monday that the gunman, who was shot dead by police at the scene on Sunday, was named Wade Michael Page, a former US soldier who served from 1992 to 1998.
The gunman shot dead six people and seriously wounded three, including a police officer, at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin as worshippers prepared for religious services.
Military sources said Page had been discharged from the Army in 1998 for “patterns of misconduct” and had been cited for being drunk on duty.
Page had served in the military for six years but was never posted overseas. He was a psychological operations specialist and missile repairman who was last stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the sources said.
In June 1998 he was disciplined for being drunk on duty and had his rank reduced to specialist from sergeant. He was not eligible to re-enlist. Page had been a member of the racist skinhead band End Apathy, based in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 2010, said Heidi Beirich, director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) in Montgomery, Alabama.
He also tried to buy goods from the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group, in 2000, she said. The SPLC describes the National Alliance on its website as “perhaps the most dangerous and best organised neo-Nazi formation in America.”
In a 2010 online interview with End Apathy’s record label Label56, Page said he had founded the band in 2005 because “I realised ... that if we could figure out how to end people’s apathetic ways, it would be the start towards moving forward.”
Police searched an apartment at a duplex in the Cudahy neighbourhood near Milwaukee, presumed to be the residence of the gunman. Generators and floodlights were set up along the street and a bomb squad was on the scene.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2012.
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@sam:
I am a Sikh myself and have lived in the West, including the USA. Nobody is blaming Muslims here (your inferiority complex begins to show here already!) but it is a FACT corroborated by many experts who went on the air since that fateful Sunday to say that the killer, blinded by hate and ignorant about the difference between Sikhs and Muslims, may have committed the massacre because of his misguided belief that the victims were Muslims. Killing of any human being (whether Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Christian, etc.)is by no means justifiable. Many of the Sikhs, who have been attacked, insulted and abused since Sept.11, have said that they face such tyranny in their daily life in the West where people believe that they are Islamists. That's the way it is. C'est la vie!
my point is that instead of saying that "we are not muslims" Sikhs should say any "violence on any people is wrong.whether they are muslims or sikhs or hindus". but instead sikhs say "we are not muslims" that actually means "we are sikhs so kill right people,attack mosques" @I am sam: i would tell you that i have seen Gurdwara,i have gone to Hindu temple,Christian church and muslim mosque.devotion reflects our acts in our daily life.as there are many sikhs around me i am not impressed by their acts.they are full of hatred.they hate both muslims and hindus and its part of their religion.that tells me what kind devotion you have in your gurdwaras.
@sam, take it easy man sikhs are not muslims they are half & half.
The gory incident of Wisconsin massacre has raised the issue of safety of religious minorities in the land of opportunities, equality and civil liberties. When the news broke, everyone was in shock waiting for the Right-wing media to start blaming the Muslims. Mercifully, the attacker was killed in the shoot-out and his identity was revealed. He was a white extremist like the Oslo Butcher apparently misguided by “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam.” He had the hatred against Muslims driving his fury. The Sikhs became his victims mistakenly because they look and dress like Osama bin Laden. Read more at: https://passivevoices.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/real-target-of-the-butcher-of-wisconsin-was-not-the-sikh-community/
@sam:
I am going to recommend something really really tough to you & you can only do it if you have the guts -
After you have finished praying namaz, go to a Gurdwara. Sit in one corner for 30 mins and just observe the devotion on the faces of the worshippers. Next go to a church and do the same thing. Follow it up with a Hindu temple, Buddhist temple and a Synagogue. By the time you are done, it will be time for teh next namaz. Come back to the mosque and this time instead of praying, sit in one corner & look at the devotion on the faces of the worshippers.
Repeat until the hate goes away.
"Sikhs are not Muslims" is a hate campaign by Sikhs against Muslims. that means "Kill muslims and we are not muslims"
@sam: you need to check the fact. find statement given by murderer who killed first Sikh in Arizona after 9/11. Every Sikh murder after 9/11 was due to mistaken identity (Muslim/Taliban wear turban)
Its time to clearly run Ads in all major & minor TV channels of US that "Sikhs are not Muslims"!!
when american do it they say he was mentally not fit but when Muslim do it they say he is terrorist
Sikh community need to work out why they are hated most.not only in india, they are regularly attacked in UK,Germany,Australia,NZD,USA. their resemblence to muslims is NOT cause of attacks.people know the difference. stop pointing to muslims. in London a Sikh resturant owner did not stop work when his fellow worker fell down and died.his body laid in kitchen,close to him and he (sikh) kept making samosas.police brought it to media.disgusting
What? Not a muslim?? Unbelievable! jk.
@Asad Rejoice, a Pakistani was not involved this time
@Asad: They did and he wasnt a pakistani this time. whats your point?
US police are 100% wrong. The gunman must be Pakistani or Muslim. Need to recheck..
Fanatics and religious extremists anywhere in the world are a curse to humanity everywhere.