Texas County's First Sikh Deputy Shot

By Sushmita Roy

Four years ago, Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal, a Sikh Texas sheriff’s deputy, garnered national attention for gaining permission to wear a turban and grow his beard - a religious practice observed by Sikhs. Last week, Dhaliwal was in the news again, only this time it involved a bullet.

Dhaliwal was conducting a routine traffic stop on Friday at 12:23 p.m. local time, minutes before he was ambushed. The footage from the dashboard camera showed him having a conversation with the driver for about two minutes. “It looked to be just conversational,” Major Lee of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said during a news conference.

“There was no combat, no arguing,” the major said. “It looked like a routine traffic stop that we conduct every day.”

At around 12:45 p.m. right when Dhaliwal turned to proceed towards his car, the driver swung upon his door, ran behind Dhaliwal and shot him on the back of his head, the Houston Chronicle reported.

A woman working on her yard who observed the scene and heard two gunshots saw the gunman flee, the major recounted. She immediately called 911 and law enforcement officers set out for the scene.

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The gunman was later found inside a store about a quarter of a mile away. “A deputy observed that he looked a little nervous and put him in custody,” Major Lee said. “And that did turn out to be our shooter.”

Later that day, the police identified the gunman as Robert Solis, 47, and said that he would be charged with capital murder. Solis already had an active parole violation warrant for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon from 2017, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on Twitter.

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“I feel simultaneous anger and utter dismay because Mr. Dhaliwal’s death could have been prevented because I adamantly feel that no one, especially no one with a record containing glaringly obvious red flag like the alleged murderer should ever have access to a firearm,” Sunderveer Kaur Sidhu, who lived in Houston for 15 years and whose father served as the former secretary & multi-term president of the Gurdwara Sahib of Houston, told World Peace Association.

Gun violence is a rising concern in the United States. According to The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that tracks gun incidents, there have been 10,018 deaths and 20,061 injuries from gun violence in 2019. The figures, however, do not include suicides by firearms that claim about 23,000 lives each year.

“This community included Mr. Dhaliwal and his family, though I may never have known him or his family personally. The Houston Sikh community was similarly shaken when my father met with an accident that took his life in 2009, so I understand all too well the magnitude of the loss of Mr. Dhaliwal,” Sidhu said.

“Mr. Dhaliwal’s death has caused reliving the loss of my father, but with new layers of upset as this new tragedy was the result of gun violence,” Sidhu who is a vocal advocate for gun control, said.

“I feel a suffocating sense of terror anywhere I happen to be when I am in the US as a result of the sheer amount of gun violence and incidents like this. I know I certainly did not feel safe when I visited Houston in March of last year and don’t feel safe in LA where I now reside,” Sidhu added.

Dhaliwal’s death, like stated by Sihu, has deeply affected the Sikh community of Houston.

Community members and those who knew Dhaliwal, have come forward to express grief, conduct prayers and support Dhaliwal’s wife and three kids.

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Members of the Sikh community have also started a GoFundMe campaign to help Dhaliwal’s family cover unforeseen expenses and pay for his children’s education.

Dhaliwal also served as the Homeland Security Director of United Sikhs, a U.N. affiliated humanitarian group. According to the organization, he led a team of United Sikhs volunteers to provide disaster relief to those in need across Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

He also helped lead a humanitarian assistance program for farmers affected by a severe drought in Punjab, India. The organization has also set up a GoFundMe campaign as well as a Facebook fundraiser for Dhaliwal’s family.

“He was a good man. He was always helping other people and spreading goodwill,” Manpreet Kaur Singh, who attended the same Gurudwara - place of assembly and worship for Sikhs- as Dhaliwal, told the World Peace Association. She was on her way to the vigil on Monday and has visited Dhaliwal’s family every day since the incident.

The Sikh National Center is holding an Akhand Path - a non-stop reading of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book - that began on Monday and will conclude 48 hours later on Wednesday to honor the trailblazer.

According to CNN, thousands of people are expected to gather at the Berry Center in Houston on Wednesday to honor the deputy’s legacy in a ceremony open to the public.

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On Sunday, the NFL’s Houston Texas also honored the deputy in a moment of silence before their game. A local Chick-fil-A restaurant also honored Dhaliwal with a missing man table, an honor typically found in military dining facilities to honor fallen service members.

The mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, called Deputy Dhaliwal “a bold and groundbreaking law enforcement officer in the eyes of our county, our state, our nation,” in a statement.

“The story of him putting the Sikh imperative of ‘seva’ — selfless service — on display as a peacekeeper went worldwide,” the mayor said.

“He was a good man. He was always helping other people and spreading goodwill." Picture Credit: United Sikhs

“He was a good man. He was always helping other people and spreading goodwill." Picture Credit: United Sikhs

United StatesSushmita Roy