51-year-old Lt. Brian Murphy was shot eight times.
In the worst-ever attack on the Sikh community in the US, a gunman shot dead six people at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin on Sunday morning when hundreds of devotees had come there for prayers.
The gunman was shot dead by a police officer who was on the scene immediately after 10/25 a.m. when the gunman went on the rampage at the temple in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek.
Sikhs, who number about 500,000 in the US, have often been mistaken for Muslims and targeted after 9/11.
The community across the US rallied to the support of the victims.
Sikhs for Justice, a human rights advocacy group, announced an award of $10,000 for the police officer whose `brave and timely action’ saved many people in the shooting.
Calling him the super cop, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) said it was announcing the the $10,000 gallantry award for the officer who risked “his life to defend Sikhs’’ in the shoot-out.
However, the SFJ blamed the authorities for not protecting minorities. It said though the US claims “to be savior of religious minorities across the world, it has miserably failed to protect the religious minorities at home.’’
Citing “hundreds of hate crimes perpetrated against Sikhs and other religious minorities since September 11, 2001,’’ the SFJ held the Obama Administration responsible for “failing to protect the religious minorities in the United Sates as no concrete steps have been taken for the protection of religious minorities.’’
The Sikh body said it will approach the US Commission on International Religious Freedom to suggest concrete measures to the Obama Administration for protection of religious minorities who are an integral part of American society.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor to SFJ, said the attack on Sikhs “is not due to mistaken identity as commonly portrayed but rather Sikhs are targeted for being Sikhs, a religious minority.’’?He added that “it is incumbent upon the Obama administration to take concrete measures to prevent future hate crimes against Sikhs or any other religious minority. These attacks have cultivated deep sense of insecurity among the American Sikh community.’’
