2012 US gurdwara massacre survivor dies, toll goes up to 7

Wade Michael Page, a white supremacist, had opened fire on the gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin just as worshippers were gathering for the morning prayer. He killed six people and wounded several others before being killed in a gunfight with police.

Baba Punjab Singh, a survivor of the 2012 massacre of worshippers at a gurdwara in Wisconsin state by a white supremacist, died Monday, taking up the toll to seven. The killings had led to changes in the federal criminal justice system to include attacks on Sikhs as a hate crime.

This Aug 5, 2013 photo shows hundreds participate in a candlelight vigil at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting rampage that left six dead in Oak Creek, Wis. (AP File)

Singh, 72, had been left paralysed by a shot in the face and could communicate only by blinking his eyes. He had lived in a long-term care facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin since.

“Babaji’s capacity for love and optimism was unchanged by the heinous attack in Oak Creek, as well as the life-altering injuries he sustained,” said his son Raghuvinder Singh said in a statement. “Even when I regularly visited him in the hospital after his paralysis, I would ask him: Are you living in chardikala, the Sikh spirit of eternal optimism? Each time, without fail, he would blink twice to say ‘yes’.”

Wade Michael Page, a white supremacist, had opened fire on the gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin just as worshippers were gathering for the morning prayer. He killed six people and wounded several others - Singh was among them - before he was killed in a gunfight with a police officer.

The massacre led to congressional hearings and became a turning point in the treatment of crimes against Sikhs, who had become a target of ethnic slurs, bullying and violence. The FBI now tracks incidents against Sikhs as a hate crime.

Sikhs were the target of 4.1% of hate crimes committed on the basis of religious identity in 2018, according to the FBI