| diwas k |
Posted
on 16-Sep-01 06:41 PM
This from the Boston Globe website....
In Arizona, gunman kills immigrant from India
By Foster Klug, Associated Press, 09/16/01
MESA, Ariz. -- An Indian-immigrant gas station owner was shot to death and a Lebanese-American clerk was targeted, but not injured, by gunfire at another Mesa gas station, police said Sunday.
Shots were also fired at a home where a family of Afghani descent live.
Frank Roque, 42, was charged with attempted murder in two of the three attacks Saturday, and police were investigating the possibility that the crimes were linked to Tuesday's terror attacks in New York and Washington.
Around the country, several apparent backlash attacks and threats have been reported against people of Middle Eastern descent.
The East Valley Tribune reported that Roque shouted, "I stand for America all the way," as he was handcuffed Saturday night.
Roque was accused only in the shootings at the second gas station and at the home, said police Sgt. Mike Goulet. He hadn't been charged in the first shooting, which killed Balbir Singh Sodhi, an immigrant from India, but police continued to question Roque on Sunday and had no other suspects, Goulet said.
Police notified FBI officials who investigate hate crimes but hadn't determined whether the incident was based on the victims' race, Goulet said.
Sodhi, 49, was a Sikh. His relatives pointed to the fact that the gas station wasn't robbed as evidence that Sodhi was targeted because of how he looked. Male Sikhs often have long facial hair and wear turbans.
"He wouldn't have any enemies," said his cousin, Harjit Singh Sodhi.
The clerk at the second gas station was a U.S. citizen of Lebanese descent, according to his employers, Ali Saad and Saad Saad. The brothers, who didn't give the clerk's name, said they had no doubt that he was targeted because of his race.
"In Mesa, Arizona, today, it's time for calm and rational thought," Mayor Keno Hawker said Sunday. "These people are innocent. Because they wear a turban on their head is no indication they are terrorists."
Since Tuesday's attacks, authorities across the country have reported a number of attacks and threats against people of Middle Eastern descent.
Among them: an attack on a Moroccan gas station attendant in Palos Heights, Ill.; an attempt to run over a Pakistani woman in a parking lot in Huntington, N.Y.; and the arrest of an armed man who allegedly set fire to a Seattle mosque.
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