Interfaith residents of Elk Grove, Calif. gathered on March 11 for a prayer vigil to honor two elderly Sikh community members who were gunned down early this month during their routine walk through the neighborhood. One of the victims in the shooting, 67-year-old Surinder Singh, suffered fatal wounds while his friend, 78-year-old Gurmej Atwal, remains in critical condition.
East Stockton Boulevard, a busy Elk Grove road was temporarily closed to traffic as residents of different ethnicities and religions lit candles and listened as a series of speakers, including the grandson and granddaughters of Singh, spoke solemnly about the tragic loss of their family member.
Many members of the community fear that the shootings were a hate-motivated crime and that the two might have been mistaken for people of Muslim faith. Just feet away from where the two were shot, Sikh and Muslim residents called for interfaith acceptance and respect.
Not In Our Town features this video of the Elk Grove community standing up to religious intolerance.
No one has yet been identified in the shooting but members of the Elk Grove community and a number of religious organizations have contributed to a reward of more than $42,000 for information leading to arrest. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said that “any attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” and is declaring April 13th Sikh Solidarity Day. He urges civic leaders and community members to wear either a man’s turban or a woman’s Punjabi suit and chunni, or headwear, as a symbol of
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