Slain Indian immigrant targeted because of his race, county attorney says

By FOSTER KLUG
Associated Press Writer

PHOENIX – A man accused of fatally shooting an Indian immigrant and firing at other minorities during a rampage in suburban Phoenix targeted the victims because of their race, the county attorney said Monday.

A police report also said that Frank Silva Roque shouted that he was a patriot as he was arrested.

"I'm an American. Arrest me. Let those terrorists run wild," Roque was quoted as saying in a report read to The Associated Press on Monday by Mesa Detective Tim Gaffney.

Saturday's killing of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh, outside the gas station he operated in Mesa touched off protests in India and a call to President Bush by that country's prime minister. Authorities investigated whether the shooting spree was a response to last week's East Coast terror attacks.

Roque, 42, was formally charged Monday with first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder and three counts of drive-by shooting. He was held in lieu of $1 million bond.

"Mr. Sodhi was killed for no other apparent reason than that he was dark-skinned and wore a turban," Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said. "He was killed because of hate."

Romley didn't address whether the shootings were in retaliation for Tuesday's attacks.

If Roque is convicted on any of the charges, the fact that the shootings are considered a hate crime could lead to a harsher sentence.

The shootings occurred Saturday afternoon in the suburb of Mesa. A man in a truck shot and killed Sodhi, who was outside his gas station, drove 10 miles to a second gas station and fired several shots through a window at a Lebanese-American clerk and then fired shots into the home of a family of Afghani descent, police said.

Sodhi, 49, like many male Sikhs, had long facial hair and wore a turban.

Outside Sodhi's gas station, a shrine of candles and messages continued to grow Monday. Yellow poster board taped to a utility pole carried this message: "I did not know this man, but he is me – he is all of us. Please live on in love and peace." Another sign: "Our enemies are ignorance and hate."

In India, scores of Sikhs gathered Monday about a mile from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and held placards and banners with slogans such as: "Mr. Bush, tell Americans Sikhs are not Taliban."

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee raised the issue with U.S. President Bush in a Sunday night phone call. A member of his Cabinet and other Sikh leaders met Monday with U.S. Embassy officials, calling for the U.S. government to protect members of the minority religion that developed in northern India 500 years ago.

Around the country, several apparent backlash attacks and threats have been reported against people of Middle Eastern and southern Asian descent.

Among them: an attack on a Moroccan gas station attendant in Palos Heights, Ill.; an attempt to run over a Pakistani woman in a parking lot in Huntington, N.Y.; and the arrest of an armed man who poured gasoline in the parking lot of a Seattle mosque, fired a gun into the ground and rammed his car into a utility pole as he drove off.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, mentioning two possible reprisal killings, warned Monday that federal authorities wouldn't tolerate "vigilante attacks" by Americans against Arab-Americans.

AP-WS-09-17-01 1618EDT