Police say local Wisconsin authorities had no contact with the gunman who killed six people at a Sikh temple before the attack.
Police Chief John Edwards said Monday that authorities in suburban Milwaukee didn't have any run-ins with Wade Michael Page before Sunday's shootings. The shootings ended when Page was fatally shot by police.
Many members of the Sikh community say they've been mistaken for Muslims since 9-11 - and that they're scared. "That is God's home, everybody goes there to worship and pray for peace for everybody if that's not safe where is a person going to go?"
Amardeep Kaleka is the son of the temple's president. His father died trying to stop the attacker. "My father by engaging the shooter saved a tremendous amount of more hardship because people were able to get to cover."
FBI Special Agent in Charge Teresa Carlson also says the agency isn't aware of any past threats made against the temple. Carlson says the agency had no reason to believe he was planning or capable of such violence.
Meanwhile, a civil rights group says Page was once the leader of a white supremacist band. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Wade Page as a "frustrated neo-Nazi."
The SPLC says Page told a white supremacist website in an interview in 2010 that he had been part of the white-power music scene since 2000 when he left his native Colorado and started the band, End Apathy, in 2005.
A defense official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said Page joined the Army in 1992 and was a repairman for the Hawk missile system before switching jobs to become one of the Army's psychological operations specialists.
President Barack Obama says "all of us are heartbroken by what happened" this weekend during a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
Obama told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that Americans would "recoil" at the violence if ethnicity were a factor. The president says "we are all one people and we look after one another."
Obama spoke to reporters after he signed unrelated legislation at the White House.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued the following statement on the shooting at a Sikh Temple of Wisconsin:
"Yesterday's horrific attack on the Sikh community in Oak Creek is terribly saddening. America's Sikh community and all Americans mourn the loss of the 6 victims who perished in this senseless act of violence. Our thoughts are with them and those who were wounded during the attack. Our nation's places of worship are places of peace and community gathering. Members of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin gathered Saturday in that spirit, and the tragic event that transpired has brought grief and sadness to our nation. All members of that community are in our hearts and minds today. We will stand by their side as they begin to heal from this dreadful attack."
(AP)
