Sunday September 16, 2001

Indian man shot dead in US in apparent backlash to terror attacks



WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (AFP) - An Indian man who moved to the United States 10 years ago was shot dead on the weekend by an unidentified assailant, The Arizona Republic newspaper reported Sunday, in what looked like a misplaced incident of revenge for the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Balbir Singh Sodhi, 49, was killed Saturday when a gunman driving a black pick-up truck drove into the Mesa, Arizona service station he ran and fired three shots. The assailant then drove on to another service station where a Lebanese-American employee was working and to a house, firing shots but injuring no one else.

Sodhi's brother, Harjit, told the newspaper his sibling was killed because his dark skin, beard and turban made him look Middle Eastern, like the men US authorities say hijacked the planes used in Tuesday's devastating attacks. "Some people don't understand because we are different, because we look like (Osama) bin Laden," Harjit said. "But we are not Muslim." The Sodhis, originally from Punjab in India, belong to the Sikh religion.

The newspaper said police were trying to trace the killer. One officer, sergeant Mike Goulet, said the murder was not being considered a racist crime.

Mike Goulet does not consider this as a hate crime. What is this a love crime??? Murdering innocent people because ignorance of individuals. I appeal to all of this type thinking to go out and educate your self, before you arm your self!!

I think this is such a sad thing to see. I can't believe how far this has gone. My heart goes out to the Arabs who are now being attacked because of the Twin Tower incident , when they in fact are a part of us too. I hope that people will think before they act from now on. We as a country need to make responsible choices, not stupid ones.

The police officer should be fired. You can't really expect much from the lower classes of american society. They have been brought up uneducated and resentful of their surroundings. You can tell that the government is trying to promote peace while the idiotic yahoos of society think they are in rambo 2. If they want to do something for their country, do something brave and join the army. Don't go guning for innocent people.