In Memory: Devinder Singh, Balbir Singh, Sukhpal Singh

September 13th, 2005 by admin

On September 13, 2003, a Sikh cab driver, Devinder Singh, age 21, was shot and killed in an apparent hate crime. Two days after the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, bombing tragedy, Devinder Singh was called to pick up two passengers and drive them from Redwood City, CA to Menlo Park, CA. One or both of the passengers shot and killed him after driving less than four blocks in the cab.

On September 15, 2001, Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot five times by a gunman and died instantly. Apparently, he had been confused with a person of Middle Eastern ethnicity because of the clothes he wore, his turban, and his beard. Within 25 minutes of his death, the Phoenix police reported four further attacks on people who either were Middle Easterners or who dressed with clothes thought to be worn by Middle Easterners.

Born in Punjab, India, Balbir Singh was a member of the Sikh faith. He moved to Los Angeles in 1989, where he worked as a taxi driver. He later relocated to San Francisco, where he continued to work in that capacity. He saved enough money to buy a gas station in Phoenix, and then he moved there.

On September 30, 2003, Frank Roque, age 44, was convicted of first-degree murder in the Singh case. On October 10, dismissing defense claims of diminished mental responsibility (Roque has a history of schizophrenia and of hearing voices), jurors at Maricopa County Superior Court sentenced him to face the death penalty.

Less than a year after Balbir’s death (August 4, 2002), his younger brother, Sukhpal Singh Sodhi, was shot to death in his taxicab in San Francisco, apparently by a stray bullet from a nearby gang fight. “What are you going to do with anger?” said Balbir’s son, Sukhwinder, in response to the second tragedy. “We like peace and we are a peaceful people.”

“We have been living here 16 to 18 years,” said Lakhwinder Singh Sodhi, 35, the family’s youngest son, who makes his home in Phoenix. “This is a terrible year, a terrible year. In one year, we lose two brothers. It’s unbelievable.”

Both the slain sons had worked to support families in India, as did many of the family members who came to the United States starting in 1984.

Balbir Singh Sodhi, who started working as a cabdriver in San Francisco about a year after coming to this country in 1989, had opened a convenience store and gas station in Mesa in 2000. He brought two of his sons here while sending money back to his wife and youngest son in the village. He hoped to retire in India.

Sukhpal Singh Sodhi had spent nearly a decade driving a cab in San Francisco to support his wife, Parwinder, his grown son and two daughters, all of whom live in the family’s village of Passiawal. He was hoping to open a convenience store along with relatives in Phoenix.

Amrik Singh Malhi, 38, who considered the two slain Sodhi siblings akin to his own brothers, was at the family home in Daly City to comfort Sukhpal’s relatives.

”I don’t know what to say. We came here for peace, but somehow we are getting targeted for nothing,” said Malhi, whose own brother died two years ago when a disgruntled worshiper opened fire at a Sikh temple in El Sobrante.

“It’s scary,” Malhi said of the violence. “But we believe in our faith. When your time is up, it doesn’t matter what you are doing. Your time is up.”

Above: Balbir Singh (Left) and Sukhpal Singh (Right)

Sources: Wikipedia, SikhNet, Sikh Coalition

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