"Some of the best people we lost:" Members of Sikh Temple remember 6 gunned down in 2012
OAK CREEK -- Six people were shot and killed at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin on August 5th, 2012, and families who lost loved ones remembered that tragedy Sunday, August 7th.
Wade Page, a white supremacist shot one woman: Paramjit Kaur, 41; and five men: Satwant Singh Kaleka, 65, the founder of the gurdwara; Prakash Singh, 39, a Granthi; Sita Singh, 41; Ranjit Singh, 49; and Suveg Singh, 84.
Sikh Temple of Wisconsin shooting victims
Following emergency calls around 10:25 a.m., police responded to a shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek on August 5th, 2012.
Upon arrival, they engaged the gunman, Wade Page. Page wounded an officer, and after being shot in the stomach by another, he fatally shot himself in the head.
"Tears come to my eyes. We feel what happened. Why did it happen? We are concerned that all the people we lost were very religious people. Some of the best people we lost," Swaranjit Singh Arora said.
Swaranjit Singh Arora said on August 5th, 2012, it happened to be the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, but he said it could have been others, at other places. We have since seen mass shootings at nightclubs and schools.
Shooting at Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek
"We have to work for understanding of different religions, different ethnicities, different cultural groups," Swaranjit Singh Arora said.
Swaranjit Singh Arora said you can just look at the gatherings this weekend at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin to understand the Sikh philosophy. Everyone, young and old, rich and poor sat and enjoyed a meal together -- no one greater than the next.
That's something Page may not have understood -- and why six people had to lose their lives four years ago.
"Now we live with their memories. We think of how great they were and how great the whole community is," Swaranjit Singh Arora said.
On the fourth anniversary of this tragedy, members of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin gathered to not only pray for the lives lost, but also, for the one responsible.
Sikh Temple of Wisconsin
"We pray that we don't know what happened to him -- why he did that. There must have been some misunderstanding and we pray because of his mom must be suffering. We pray for that family also," Swaranjit Singh Arora said.
Sikh Temple of Wisconsin