The Sikh temple leader wanted as a terrorist by India walked toward his pickup truck late one Sunday in June after a long day at his place of worship. He and an associate discussed some upcoming programs while making their way across the large parking lot behind the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple near Vancouver, British Columbia.
It was Father’s Day, and once inside his gray Dodge Ram, the leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, called his family and said he was heading right home. But he had barely reached the parking lot’s exit when, according to temple officials who have watched the temple’s security video, a white vehicle suddenly blocked him. Then, witnesses say, they heard a burst of automatic gunfire and saw two hooded men running away from Nijjar’s immobilized pickup.
"It went on for about 10 seconds,” said one witness, Bhupinder Jit Singh, a temple member who was playing soccer in a field next to the parking lot.