LAPD Kills Sikh Man; UK to Investigate Sikh Charities

The Los Angles Police Department (LAPD) released a video dated 13 Jul showing a 35-year-old Gurpreet Singh performing Gatka (traditional Sikh martial art) with a machete on the Figueroa Street and Olympic Boulevard, Los Angles. After a stand off, LAPD shot dead Gurpreet. LAPD said Gurpreet abandoned his car in the middle of the road, waved the machete aggressively and, at one point, even appeared to slice his own tongue with the weapon. Officers said they repeatedly ordered him to drop the blade, but he refused to comply. Singh briefly returned to his vehicle, retrieved a water bottle and hurled it at police before driving off while sticking the machete out of the window. Officers launched a short pursuit during which Gurpreet drove erratically and collided with a police vehicle. Meanwhile, Indianapolis Sikh and Panjabi families say US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) arrests in their community increased this summer. At Gurdwara Guru Nanak Sikh Society, Komal Kaur, president of Umeed (Hope)—a Sikh-led mutual aid coalition supporting marginalized communities—said, 'Since January, our role has changed. We’ve been getting a lot of calls from individuals who need mental health support who are being detained.' Kaur added, 'We’re having a larger population of people detained by ICE that don’t speak any English at all. The language barrier adds to the distress and the confusion of navigating an already complex situation.' Kaur is working to find reputable experts and organizations who help people in custody or fearful of being arrested. Concurrently, in the UK, the Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into unregistered charity Guru Nanak Gurdwara (also known as the Nanak Sikh Temple, amongst other names) established in 1980 and the Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Wednesfield. The Charity Commission itself was registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2024. The Commission had previously opened a regulatory compliance case due to concerns raised by some of the Gurdwara’s congregation about the trustees’ oversight of the established, unregistered charity. The Commission says, trustees of both charities have failed to comply with regulatory guidance and with information gathering Orders of the Commission.