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Kiwi Sikh
killed in cold blood
WSN Network
 AUKLAND:
Thirty year old Navtej Singh, a father of three daughters, all under
5 years of age, was shot in cold blood at his liquor shop. The three
thugs who had come with a plan to loot, shot him dead on Saturday
night after stealing fifteen bottles of beer and some dollars.
He died early Monday
in South Auckland's Middlemore Hospital after being shot at his
Manurewa liquor store.
The Sikh community
in New Zealand is concerned about the racial overtone of the crime
as there has been an increase in attacks on Fiji Indians, Indians,
Punjabis and Gujaratis for some time.
"What is happening
in South Auckland?" asked Sandeep Verma, who was with Navtej Singh
when he was shot, and when he later died in hospital.
Friends and relative
believe that had there been no delay by the ambulance service of the
police to pick him up, he may have been alive as he used the
bathroom by himself and called the ambulance service.
Members of the
National Sikh society met with Otahuhu police to discuss the fatal
shooting even as Manurewa MP George Hawkins was to meet police
Deputy Commissioner Rob Pope to raise community concerns around the
killing.
Police are reviewing
how long it took them to respond to the robbery after they held back
an ambulance from reaching the store.
Police received the
first 111 emergency call at 9.05pm but did not enter the store until
9.31pm and paramedics entered at 9.38pm - 20 minutes after they
arrived at a "safe point" at the scene.
Police later said
they had to establish where the gunman was before they entered so no
one else's life was put in anger.
Local community
leaders have raised concerns about the level of policing in the
area.
The Sikh community represnetatives said they were really concerned
at the delay in getting the ambulance there and why police took so
long to let the ambulance in.
Police rejected
suggestions that the killing in New Zealand's biggest city was
racially motivated, saying an average of one aggravated robbery a
week occurred in the area and, out of 170 liquor outlets and small
stores, only one was not owned and run by Asians, most of them
Indians.
Manpreet Singh, a
leader in the community of about 12,000 Sikhs in the Auckland
region, was quoted in the Dominion Post as saying: 'As more Indians
are hard-working and they have within their families this
background, they have got into small businesses, like liquor shops.
They are the majority owning these stores, so they are targeting
these stores.'
Police appealed to
some storekeepers who talked of arming themselves to combat
robberies not to take the law into their own hands, saying that
would only make the situation worse.
The killing of
Navtej Singh, the father of three daughters, has shocked New
Zealand, and police, who believe the robbers are locals living near
his store, appealed to the public for information that would lead to
their arrests.
11
June,
2008
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