Update on Sikh Shootings: Gunman’s Tattoos Point to Domestic Terrorism
An unnamed federal official told the Los Angeles Times tonight that the shootings in Wisconsin are being treated as domestic terrorism because of the gunman’s tattoos and biographical details.
Tattoos on the body of the slain Sikh temple gunman and certain biographical details led the FBI to treat the attack at a Milwaukee-area temple as an act of domestic terrorism, officials said Sunday.
CNN has another detail about the tattoos (h/t: Khorramdin):
The attack occurred about 10:30 a.m. (11:30 a.m. ET), when temple members were reading scriptures and cooking food in preparation for the main Sunday service and community lunch, said Kanwardeep Singh Kaleka, a member of the congregation and the nephew of its president.
Kaleka was not at the temple at the time of the shooting, but helped police interview witnesses in the aftermath. He said members described the attacker as a bald, white man, dressed in a white T-shirt and black pants and with a 9/11 tattoo on one arm — which “implies to me that there’s some level of hate crime there.”
More information on the shooter’s motivations:
Officials told NBC News the suspect,�who served in the U.S. Army,�had many tattoos. The suspect had some kind of radical or white supremacist views but,�as far as officials said they had�heard, he was not in any kind of radical organization. His previous run-ins with law enforcement involved in traffic offenses, they said.