Sikh leader, cops hailed as Wis. rampage heroes
Oak Creek Police Department Lt. Brian Murphy, left, and Sikh Temple of Wisconsin president Satwant Singh Kaleka are seen in this combination of undated pictures. / CBS/AP Photo/Oak Creek Police Department
(CBS/AP) MILWAUKEE - His community under attack, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin president Satwant Singh Kaleka fought back with all his strength and a ceremonial knife, trying to stab a murderous gunman before taking two fatal gunshots to the leg.
Shot nine times and left for dead as he tended to a wounded victim outside, Oak Creek Police Lt. Brian Murphy tried to wave off his colleagues' aid, insisting worshippers indoors needed their help more.
Under fire in the temple parking lot, 32-year veteran Oak Creek police officer Sam Lenda took aim and shot back, downing the gunman who refused to drop his weapon after killing six people as they gathered for Sunday services.
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Kaleka, Murphy and Lenda — one dead, one critically injured and one physically unharmed — are being hailed as heroes for saving lives in the shootings that sent more shockwaves through the nation just two weeks after a gunman killed 12 people inside an Aurora, Colo., movie theater. Police say gunman Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old Army veteran and former leader of a white supremacist heavy metal band, unloaded a 9 mm handgun at the temple. They have not determined a motive.
What they have done is hailed the actions of those caught in the crossfire.
Kaleka, 65, helped found the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in 1997 with a couple dozen families. They met in rental halls as the congregation grew to about 1,000 before it moved into its current location five years ago.(Watch at left a "CBS Evening News" report on Kaleka)
Staring down the gunman Sunday morning, Kaleka managed to find the ceremonial knife and tried to stab Page before being shot twice near the hip or upper leg, Kaleka's family told CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.
His son Amardeep Singh Kaleka said FBI agents hugged him Sunday, shook his hand and said, "Your dad's a hero."
"Whatever time he spent in that struggle gave the women time to get cover" in the kitchen, said Kaleka, whose mother was among more than a dozen women and children who took cover as Page forced his way into the temple. She dialed 911 while hiding.
After coming to the United States in 1982 with just $35, Satwant Singh Kaleka built a temple for the nearly 400 families in the local Sikh community.
"He said, 'God has a thing for me. I want to build this temple,'" Amardeep Singh Kaleka told Tracy. "And, it's the temple that he built."
It took less than four minutes for Murphy, a 21-year veteran and native New Yorker who was a finalist to be chief two years ago, to arrive on the scene. He saw a victim lying in the parking lot and was tending to him when Page approached.
Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting
Page shot Murphy at "very close range" nine times, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said.
"He clearly was in a blaze of gunfire," said Dr. Gary Seabrook, director of surgical services at Froedtert Hospital, where Murphy and two other survivors were treated.
Moments after Murphy was shot, more officers arrived at the scene. Lenda was among them.
He and the other officers heard gunshots, but didn't know who had been hit. They did know that a man with a gun was walking toward them.
The officers ordered Page to stop, drop his weapon and put his hands up. Instead, Page fired at least two rounds, hitting one of the squad cars.
Lenda returned fire with his department-issued rifle, and Page went down.
Lenda and other officers radioed Murphy, who was supposed to respond with his badge number, but they didn't hear back.
They soon saw him lying on the ground.
"As they approached him, he waved them off. He had been shot nine times, one of them very serious in the neck area, and he waved them off and told them to go into the temple and assist those in there," Edwards said Monday.
Despite his pleas, officers removed Murphy from the scene, quickly carrying him to a squad car before entering the temple.
While Murphy remained hospitalized in critical condition Monday, Edwards said he was resting and surrounded by his family. Lenda did not wish to discuss the shootings Monday.
"Lenda does not consider himself a hero and is not interested in being a part of any story to that effect," said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association. "He feels as though he was only doing his job."
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"It's an amazing act of heroism, but it's also exactly who he was," Amardeep Kaleka said. "There was no way in God's green Earth that he would allow somebody to come in and do that without trying his best to stop it."]]
Huh.. How about that? You mean that all Sikhs are ARMED?
Yes they are - with a "ceremonial" dagger called the KIRPAN. But this is no pocket knife - the KIRPAN has blood gutters and a guard with notches for catching other knives. It is a fighting knife - it can be up to three FEET long.
WHY do the Sikhs carry knives religiously?
"The kirpan has both a physical function, as a defensive weapon, as well as a symbolic function. Physically it is an instrument of "ahimsa" or non-violence. The principle of ahimsa is to actively prevent violence; the kirpan is a tool to be used to prevent violence from being done to a defenseless person when all other means to do so have failed. Symbolically, the kirpan represents the power of truth to cut through untruth. It is the cutting edge of the enlightened mind." -from Wiki.
Carrying the Kirpan as a "sacrament" of their religion was originally put into place to protect Sikhs against, GUESS WHO... Muslims. Apparently the Sikhs objected to being carved up like sheep by a violent and pitiless enemy so they decided to arm themselves - they did this 600 years ago. Who would have thunk it? Apparently it worked - the Muslims learned to leave the Sikhs alone. More Kirpans - less crime.
I would suggest that Sikhism is on to something when it comes to preventing violent crime. I would further suggest that Singh Sahib Giani Gurbachan Singh, the current religious head of the Sikhs, should update the requirements for self defense so that the most recent incarnation of the "Kirpan" should be a Glock-19.