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Spree Killers
A general thread to cover reports people who kill a number of people in a short space of time.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/02/23/MNGJ7566RV1.DTL&type=news
Emps
A general thread to cover reports people who kill a number of people in a short space of time.
Sikh men slain in San Jose park
Gunman killed after deadly rampage on card players
Demian Bulwa, Delfin Vigil, Simone Sebastian, Chronicle Staff Writers
Monday, February 23, 2004
A leisurely afternoon at a San Jose park turned violent Sunday, when a gunman opened fire on a group of mostly elderly Sikh men who were playing cards, striking six of them -- three fatally -- before the group turned on the attacker.
The assailant, a 43-year-old San Jose man whose name was not released, died at the scene after several witnesses wrestled him to the ground when his gun jammed or ran out of ammunition, San Jose police said.
Sarwan Singh Gill, 47, of San Jose witnessed the attack.
He 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 the danger by hiding behind a tree. He said the shooter was reloading his weapon and began firing again when somebody tackled him from behind.
"I lost my friends, and I'm feeling very bad,'' Gill said in Punjabi at his home Sunday night, surrounded by family members.
Police responding to the 2:47 p.m. call about shooting at the usually tranquil park found a chaotic scene.
"This is very much unusual,'' said San Jose police spokesman Steve Dixon. "These fellows play cards at this park regularly, and on typical Sunday afternoons we have never had any trouble before.''
Two men died at the scene, and one died at San Jose Medical Center. They were 46, 65 and 70 years old, police said. Three others, ages 80, 78 and 62, were sent to Regional Medical Center in San Jose with non-life threatening injuries, according to Dixon.
The suspect 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.
Sunday evening, relatives, friends and associates of the shooting victims tried to make sense of the devastation and questioned why anyone would have wanted to kill them. The men -- most of whom attended Sikh Gurdwara temple in San Jose and who were between the ages of 46 and 80 years old -- were longtime friends who gathered almost daily at the park for card games.
Relatives identified the 46-year-old man who was killed as Kulwant Singh, a technician at Wintec Industries in Fremont, who came to the United States from India in 1999, leaving behind a small farm. He lived in San Jose with his wife and three daughters.
"He was a hard worker who was honest, loyal, committed, and family oriented," said Kulwant Singh's brother-in-law, Kirpal Singh Atwal.
Kulwant Singh's wife, Baljeet Kaur was walking in the park when she heard the gunshots, her brother said. It wasn't until three hours later that police told her that her husband was among the dead.
Sunday night, she was surrounded by friends and family at her San Jose apartment. Twenty friends packed onto the floor of Kaur's and Kulwant's bedroom, passing around pictures of the couple and grieving his loss.
At the Sikh Gurdwara temple on Quimby Road, where about 1,000 Sikhs worship, people gathered Sunday evening awaiting news of the victims' identities.
"Many families are calling, and they are very scared," said the vice president of the temple, Bob Dhillon, who spent several hours answering phone calls from concerned members. "This has scared the heck out of our community. It is especially disturbing that this happened in a public place."
Temple secretary Jaswant Singh Hothi said the shooting brought back tension felt within the community following Sept. 11, 2001, when Sikhs were mistakenly targeted as followers of Osama bin Laden. Sikh men's traditional garb -- with long, thick beards and turbans -- cause them to resemble the widely publicized photographs of the Muslim terrorist.
Sikhs are not Muslims, though their traditional appearance causes confusion. Many are Punjabi natives, a tiny minority in their Indian homeland. The 500-year-old Sikh Dharma monotheistic religion was founded in India, based in philosophies of social equality and truth.
"I'm feeling very scared," Hothi said.
"Those people just sit (at the park) every day. They don't have any problems," Hothi said. "We're just confused. Right now, we are nowhere."
The uncertainty about who the shooter was and what his motives were increased tension in the temple.
"Who has done these things? Why?" asked Billy Singh, 30, who searched the park Sunday evening for his father, Swarn Singh, who often joined in the card games.
"I haven't seen him. I've been looking for him everywhere," Billy Singh said, not knowing if his father was among the victims. He later learned his father was OK.
Swarn Singh said the group of friends had gathered at the park for years to play cards, joke around, and just talk.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/02/23/MNGJ7566RV1.DTL&type=news
Emps