Wisconsin: The gunman who killed six people at the Wisconsin gurudwara in the US hated non-whites and pictures show him posing against the Nazi Swastik symbol. Gunman Wade Michael Page's friend, in an interview with CNN said that he spoke about racial cleansing to his group of friends. Reports say Page recently separated from his girlfriend.
The 40-year-old ex-army veteran had possible links with white supremacist groups. Wade Michael Page was shot and killed by a police officer in the parking lot of the Oak Creek Gurudwara after he wounded another police agent and killed six persons as the preparations were underway for Sunday morning prayers.
According to the profile of Page that has emerged through people and civil organisations which monitored his actions, he was a "frustrated neo-Nazi" who had been the leader of a racist white-power band known as 'End Apathy'. Page was seen sporting 9/11 tattoo on the day of the shooting.
Director of Southern Poverty Law Center's intelligence project Heidi Beirich told the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel that her group had been tracking Page since 2000, when he tried to purchase goods from well-known hate group National Alliance.
Beirich said there was "no question" Page was an ardent follower and believer in the white supremacist movement.
She said her center, which had studied hate crimes for decades, had evidence that Page attended "hate events" around the country.
Page had once said in a 2010 interview posted on the website of the record company Label56 that his music was about "how the value of human life has been degraded by tyranny."
Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a New York Times report that the music that comes from the kind of bands Page was affiliated with is "incredibly violent, and it talks about murdering Jews, black people, gay people and a whole host of other enemies."
In the interview posted Label56's website, Page talks about going to an annual white-supremacist festival 'Hammerfest' and said he played in various neo-Nazi bands, including 'Blue Eyed Devils'.
One of the songs by the band includes the lines, 'Now I'll fight for my race and nation/Sieg Heil!' Author and analyst on counterterrorism JM Berger said Page "clearly had a history with the white supremacist movement."
Another song by a band that Page played in refers to words like "our race war" and "What has happened to America/That was once so white and free."
US flag to fly at half-staff till August 10
US President Barack Obama has ordered the US flag be flown at half-staff till August 10 in the honour of the victims of Sunday's gurudwara shooting that left six worshippers dead in Wisconsin. External Affairs Minister SM Krishna spoke to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the incident.
The FBI has ruled out involvement of a second suspect.
(With additional information from PTI)
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