Suspect in 2008 Sacramento Sikh festival shooting is caught in India

The second suspected gunman who allegedly opened fire at a Sikh sports event in Sacramento County has been caught in India five years after the fatal shooting, the FBI announced.

Amandeep Singh Dhami, 28, went on the run after the August 2008 attack at the Gurmukh Singh Johal Memorial Tournament, according to the FBI.

One person -- 26-year-old Parmjit Pamma Singh -- died in the shooting, and several more were injured.

Spectators were able to hold down the other shooter -- 28-year-old Gurpreet Singh Gosal -- until Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene, some of them using hockey sticks and cricket bats, the Sacramento Bee reported. He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 35 years to life in prison in August.

The shooting reportedly erupted after a long-running dispute between Dhami and Gosal boiled over at the event.

The FBI had suspected that Dhami fled the U.S. by way of Canada to hide in India, but were unable to track him down. That was, until he was arrested on suspicion of local charges Friday in Jalandhar in India’s northern province of Punjab, authorities said.

He is now awaiting extradition to the United States to face a murder charge in the shooting death of Singh. Dhami also faces an attempted murder charge in the shooting of Shaib Jeet Singh, who was injured in the spray of gunfire, the Bee reported.

Not long after the 2008 shooting, four members of Dhami’s family were arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting him in his escape, but the case was dropped. Then in 2011, Dhami’s father, Balbir Dhami, was fatally shot in his North Laguna Creek home. That case remains unsolved, according to the Bee.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Monica M. Miller told Fox 40 in a statement that she hoped Dhami’s arrest would afford the local Sikh community some measure of closure.

“We all hope that Dhami’s eventual return for prosecution may offer some closure and peace for the Singh family, the Sacramento Sikh Society and the festival attendees who were so traumatized by the shooting,” she said.
The FBI had offered a reward of up to $20,000 for Dhami’s capture.

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jason.wells@latimes.com

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