Hunt on for another man in the killings.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A regular customer at the store where two Indians from Punjab were shot dead yesterday in Elkhart, Indiana, was arrested today, according to the local affiliate of ABC News, ABC57 News.
The Elkhart Homicide Unit said Friday they had arrested 28-year-old Kevin Moore of Elkhart for murder. The double homicide took place at a store, Saleh’s Supermarket, on Thursday morning. Police are on the hunt for another suspect.
The motive for the killings is not yet known, as the police are still investigating the case.
According to the Elkhart Truth, two masked men shot and killed the owner and an employee of the store, 55-year-old Jagtar Bhatti and 20-year-old Pawan Singh. Store employee Bill Sinclair was quoted as saying that Bhatti was the owner and Singh was a cashier.
Sinclair says he was in the store’s kitchen when he heard a noise like the pop of a firecracker. Two girls standing outside told him that two men in masks ran from the store, and when he went back inside, he saw Bhatti and Singh had been shot.
Bhatti was pistol-whipped in a previous robbery. Nearby schools were placed on lockdown for nearly two hours after the shootings, said the report.
Jagtar Singh was from Preet Nagar in Jalandhar and Pawan Preet belonged to Munnan village in Hoshiarpur.
Satnam Singh Chahal, executive director of North American Punjabi Association, condemn ed the dastardly act, and voiced his concern for the Sikh community in the US, who have long been victims of hate crimes following the terrorist attacks of 2001.
The attacks on the two men come close on the heels of the FBI declaring that they will monitor all attacks on certain communities, including the Sikhs.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com