Sikh Shooter Id

The early reports were sketchy. But now we know what the Sikh temple shooter was. He allegedly was an Army veteran, a racist, a supremacist, and a murderer. He sported a 9/11 tattoo. He lived on Holmes Avenue. Considering that James Holmes is the alleged shooter in Aurora, that is the kind of coincidence even a scriptwriter would be told not to put into a movie.

We also know the who. Sources have identified the dead suspect as Wade Michael Page. Reportedly, he was formerly connected to the Fort Bragg Army base at Fayetteville, North Carolina.

In Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a Sikh temple committee member, Ven Boba Ri, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that people inside the temple described the shooter as a white male in his 30s. Ri further reported to the Journal-Sentinel that the gunman walked up to a Sikh priest who was standing outside the temple and shot him. Then he went inside and started shooting.

The UK's Daily Mail reported, "The lone gunman, who was shot down outside the temple, was allegedly wearing tactical gear and was armed with a single handgun. He was described by witnesses as a white male in his thirties."

The days of late have been framed by breaking news, screaming headlines, and visual overkill, from Oak Creek, Aurora, and Tucson. Is there any surprise that copycat violence is back in the news?

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Remember the Tube poster from the Olympics, the one with the red-haired figure in it? (See at the bottom of this posting.) Well, look over to the right, separate and alone. That person there is a Sikh.

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The Copycat Effect

(NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004)