Parmjit Singh was murdered in 2008.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: It was a day that should have borne witness to joyous celebration; instead, festival-goers at the Bradshaw Road Sikh Temple in Sacramento, California, were plunged into fearful chaos.
Much to the horror and chagrin of all in attendance, Amandeep Singh Dhami and his friend, Gurpreet Singh Gosul allegedly fired shots that killed one man and wounded another at a sports festival on August 31, 2008.
Parmjit Singh, 26, was killed on the cricket grounds of the Sikh temple. According to the Sacramento Bee, Tajinder Uppal of Yuba City testified at Dhami’s trial on Tuesday that he had just finished a field hockey match when he heard the shots.
Minutes before the gunfire, he saw a black SUV drive into the parking lot and two men get out. Uppal identified one of the men as Dhami before pandemonium encompassed the gurudwara grounds.
“There was a big crowd getting together. People were running around all over the place,” Uppal attested.
The Bee reported Gosul fled to a nearby field with men brandishing field hockey sticks and cricket bats in close pursuit. He was subsequently apprehended and is currently serving a prison sentence for second-degree murder.
However, Dhami, then 24, escaped and fled to India, where he eluded authorities for five years before being apprehended by Indian authorities and extradited to California in 2013 to stand trial.
Dhami was apprehended near a bus stand in Mohali, Punjab and charged with illegally residing in India on the merit of fake documents, disclosed The Times of India. The Punjab State Crime Branch suspected Dhami was involved in local drug trade.
Incidentally, Dhami’s father, Balbir Singh, was found guilty of trafficking cocaine in 2008 but gunned down in his home before sentencing, revealed CBS Sacramento.
Aside from eyewitness accounts from the temple shooting, jurors also heard testimony regarding prior incidents from Dhami’s checkered past on Tuesday.
Davis police Lt. Paul Doroshov told jurors that he was nearing the end of his shift in February 2003 when he responded to a report of shots fired on Russell Boulevard. The confrontation ended with the arrests of Dhami and three others at gunpoint, according The Bee. Doroshov stated officers recovered numerous firearms, including a stolen semi-automatic.
Jurors also listened to testimony from Weldon Curran and Erik Visser, who in 2007 — just one year before Singh’s death — noticed a truck and sports utility vehicle aggressively engaging each other by tailgating and braking in a dangerous manner.
It was when Curran’s car was stopped with the two others when he noticed Dhami, who was in the SUV, had a firearm.
“We were coming to a stop when a gun was fired. The gun was fired up in the air,” Curran said. “The impression I got was that it was a warning shot,” he continued.
The Sacramento Bee reported that Visser then testified the man in the truck had exited his vehicle and started approaching Dhami before the latter stepped out of his vehicle and shot his gun in the air, prompting the unknown man to retreat.
Curran and Visser told the court they then followed Dhami and proceeded to call 911. Dhami was arrested about a mile down the road, California Highway Patrol Officer Chad Schmitt later testified, with a .38-caliber handgun missing one round stowed in the SUV’s center console.
With Dhami securely incarcerated on American soil, his trial in Sacramento Superior Court is slated to continue Wednesday.