KXLY news reported on March 4th about the Spokane gurdwara burglary:
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich: "It started out as a random act of burglary that rapidly turned into a hate crime."
Court documents say that Jeffrey Pittman came inside. When he saw the religious items he got angry and ran through the temple ransacking and breaking everything.
Pittman admitted to detectives he destroyed a religious book near the altar that he thought was the Koran. It wasn't. He said became delusional when he saw religious symbols he thought were related to ISIS and the Taliban.
Geetu Man has worshiped at this temple for 14 years. She says the community would have welcomed this man with open arms if he had come to them for help, "Whether he was looking for food, shelter or if he had questions, anything, he could have just came to us. We would love to sit down and explain to someone what our religion is and what we're about."
Pittman is charged with 1st degree armed burglery, malicious harassment and malicious mischief and he's being held on a $150,000 bond.
Last night Sikh community leaders and members of the Sikh temple came together to condemn this man's actions and the Sikh temple will also hold and open-house of the community, pretty soon, to help promote understanding. We also tonight that they are still cleaning out the Sikh temple and there's probably a lot of work still to be done.
04 Mar 2016:
naked Washington man was arrested Thursday after trashing a Sikh temple he erroneously believed to be associated with the terror organization ISIS, the Spokesman-Review reports.
Jeffrey C. Pittman, 44, was arrested in the Sikh Temple of Spokane after a brief fight with officers. He wasn’t wearing any clothes and was wielding two ceremonial swords belonging to the temple.
Pittman told authorities he broke into the building because he was cold and hungry, but once inside became convinced he was inside a mosque and that the mosque was associated with the the Islamic State.
The temple’s holy book was also defaced and pages were ripped out, according to the paper. The damage to the inside of the temple totaled about $30,000.
“Our hearts are broken,” Subarna Nagra, a temple member told the Review.
Members of the temple said they also felt compassion for Pittman who they said appeared to be ill. He later admitted to authorities that he had used meth.
Pittman also apparently believed the building was on fire and discharged two fire extinguishers while inside.
Watch the report, from local KREM2, here:
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