KNOXVILLE (WATE) – Sunday's shooting that killed six members of a Sikh temple in Wisconsin hit home for several East Tennesseans.
There are an estimated 30 Sikh families in Knoxville. The worship in two area temples.
"Our hearts are broken for those people who have suffered this," Rai Kaur Kahlsa said.
Rai Kaur Kahlsa and her husband, Rai Singh Kahlsa say they fear the shooting happened as worshipers in Wisconsin were preparing for a service in Sikh temple or "Guardwada."
"You can just picture in your mind that horror that ensued when this happened," Rai Kaur Kahlsa said. "It's just completely devastating."
The couple lives in Knoxville. Both born in the U.S.
"Sikhs as a group, especially in America, we're such a minority," Rai Kaur Kahlsa said. "We do feel a certain family bond."
They say the Knoxville community is accepting of them, but the couple believes the shooting could have been due to mistaken identity.
They say Sikhs are often confused with Muslims.
"To think that somebody could have done that as an act of intolerance towards a group of people who are so inclusive to their believes is heart-breaking," Rai Kaur said.
Investigators don't have a motive in the shooting. Until then, the couple speculates on why a gunman took all those lives.
"I have to believe it had to do something to do with some deranged concept of some feeling of separation from this particular group of people in his mind," Rai Kaur Kalsa said.
For them, the tragedy also brings back memories of the 2008 Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting.
Rai Kaur and Rai Singh say the Unitarians feel like an extended family to them.
"We just felt like very, like part of family got attacked, and it seems again, today, it was the same sort of feeling," said Rai Kaur.
The president of a local Sikh temple says the congregation is praying for the victims.
Members are still trying to figure out what they can do here and what they can do to help the congregation in Wisconsin.
"Our hearts are broken for those people who have suffered this," Rai Singh Kahlsa said.
"I have to believe it had to do something to do with some deranged concept of some feeling of separation from this particular group of people in his mind," Rai Kaur Kalsa said.
The couple believes the shooting could have been due to mistaken identity. They say Sikhs are often confused with Muslims.
