Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is calling on the Justice Department to create a task force focused on targeted attacks of the Sikh community, following the shooting at a Sikh temple in a Wisconsin suburb.
Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)
In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Democrat said the department must investigate the Oak Creek, Wis., shooting and determine if additional procedures need to be put in place to address violence impacting people based on race or religion.
The lawmaker, who serves on the House Judiciary and House Homeland Security committees, said the incident has “once again raised the growing concern of intolerance and a form of domestic terrorism we are finding more common since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2011.”
The Sunday attack has been deemed an act of domestic terrorism by law enforcement officials. Police say the shooter, 40-year-old Wade Michael Page, shot and killed six people and wounded another three in the Milwaukee suburb temple. The FBI confirmed that Page, who had ties to the white supremacist movement, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene of the shooting.
Also today, Holder announced he would be traveling to Oak Creek to deliver remarks at a memorial service for victims of the shooting.
