Shooting Details Still Sketchy Sunday Night

Police officials are releasing only sketchy details about a shooting rampage that occurred yesterday morning at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, just south of Milwaukee. What is known is that seven people are dead including the shooter.

In addition to the dead, three people were injured, including the temple’s president, and a police officer. Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards told reporters yesterday the first officer to respond to the 9-1-1 call from the temple was shot soon after arriving on the scene. “And another officer who was on scene was engaged by the suspect,” he said. Our officer did engage that individual and that individual is deceased from the actions that our officer took. It stopped a tragic event that could have been a lot worse. There was a service going on with many people a that location. “

It could have been worse according to Jatinder Mangat of Racine . He’s the nephew of temple president Satwant Singh Kaleka. Mangat says if the shooting had happened a few hours later at the height of the service, there might have been as many as 600 people in the temple instead of only about 50 when the gunman opened fire. When he spoke with reporters, Mangat wasn’t sure how seriously his uncle had been injured. There were unconfirmed reports that the temple president was shot while trying to protect other people from the shooter. Mangat says he’s convinced this was hate crime carried out by someone who didn’t understand the Sikh religion and may have shot people just because they were wearing turbans. Police will release more detail and perhaps the identity of the shooter at a new conference at 10 this morning.