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Sikhs, Friends and Phx Community Honor Balbir Singh at Memorial
09/15/2003
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0915memorial15.html
100 mark '01 killing of Sikh in hate crime
Shawn Day
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 15, 2003 12:00 AM
MESA - Jeff Linn was a jobless 49-year-old struggling to pay his rent when he first met Balbir Singh Sodhi.
The Sikh gas station owner offered Linn free pizza at the end of each day, but not because he felt sorry for him.
"I was on the verge of homelessness, but he didn't know that," Linn said, tearing up as he offered other examples of Sodhi's generosity.
"It's hard to sit here and know he died for such a senseless reason. It's just unbelievable."
Linn and more than 100 others, including Mesa Mayor Keno Hawker, U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton and members of the Sikh community, gathered Sunday to remember Sodhi, just before the second anniversary of his shooting death.
Sodhi's wife and oldest son released 30 white doves as a symbol of peace during the ceremony, and a wreath was placed beside a new plaque dedicated to Sodhi, to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and victims of hate crimes after the attacks.
There was no mention at the ceremony of Frank Roque, the man charged with first-degree murder in the death of Sodhi.
Roque admitted to driving to Sodhi's gas station, at the corner of 80th Street and University Drive, less than a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and gunning down the 49-year-old Sikh, whom he wrongly believed to be an Arab.
Roque's attorney says his client was insane at the time of the killing. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Roque is found guilty. The trial is under way in Mesa.
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