Our Bureau
Washington, DC
Indian American Impact condemned an alleged plot to carry out a mass shooting that may have targeted a Hindu temple in Aurora, Illinois. A 19-year-old Palatine man was arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat and unlawful weapon possession.
According to prosecutors, the suspect openly identified as a white supremacist at work and told coworkers he could not wait to kill Indian people. He allegedly sent a coworker an eight-page manifesto that called Indian, Jewish, and Black people “subhumans” and outlined a plot to kill as many of them as possible. Police recovered an AR-style rifle, loaded magazines, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and a gas canister labeled with a racial slur.
Chintan Patel, Executive Director of Indian American Impact, issued the following statement:
“We are grateful this mass atrocity was foiled. Thank you to the officers and agents who made the arrest, and to the coworkers who refused to look away and called 911.
Enough is enough. It should be obvious to everyone that hate against our communities does not stay in the back corners of the internet. When people with power and a platform cast Indian and South Asian Americans as outsiders to be feared and removed, they embolden those who want us dead.
Though we shouldn’t have to, we will keep fighting to affirm our belonging in this country, in our places of worship, and in every community, we call home.”