LODI, CA — Hundreds of people gathered at the Sikh Gurdwara here to mourn and demand answers in the death of an Army veteran who was shot and killed by local police. Friends and family said during the Jan. 31 night vigil at the Deshmesh Darbar Sikh Temple that Parminder Singh Shergill, 43, who participated in 1990-912s Operation Desert Storm, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder...
and was exhibiting signs of a flare-up before two officers shot him on Jan. 25 near the home he shared with his mother. “Parminder served in the Army,” his sister Kulbinder Sahota told the media, breaking into sobs. “He did not deserve to die the way he did.” Shergill’s family members say the veteran of the U.S. Army struggled with PTSD for many years. They believe that played a role in how he died. A photo of 43-year-old Shergill dressed in his Army uniform sits at a small memorial near the spot where he died. He served a total of 4 1/2 years and he also was part of Desert Storm. Friends said he was a very loving and calm person who got along very well with everybody. Shergill’s family says his mother called Lodi police because she needed medical assistance for her son. But police say when they arrived, he came at them with a knife, forcing them to open fire. Several markers show the shell casings on the ground that morning. “The Lodi Police Department knew about his background because a few other times, whenever the mother needed help, she would call them and they would take him to the V.A. Hospital for his medicines and stuff,” said. The shooting is being investigated by the Lodi Police Department, the California Department of Justice and the San Joaquin District Attorney’s Office, standard procedure when a member of the public dies at the hands of police. The department identified the officers involved as Cpl. Scott Bratton, who has been on the Lodi force since 2000, and Officer Adam Lockie, who joined the year before, Sacramento television station KCRA reported.
The family has hired a civil rights lawyer, Mark Merin, who disputed the police account during Friday’s candle light vigil and told reporters that his investigators found 14 bullet casings at the scene. Merin said witnesses told the investigators that Shergill at first refused to turn around when the officers tried to stop him.
“He didn’t turn around until, in front of his home, he turned around,” he said. “And put his hands up in the air and said, ‘Don’t shoot,’ at which time he was killed.” “It just seems like a totally unjustified wanton waste of human life,” Merin added. Shergill will be buried with full military honors at Cherokee Memorial Park in Lodi.
The family has hired a civil rights lawyer, Mark Merin, who disputed the police account during Friday’s candle light vigil and told reporters that his investigators found 14 bullet casings at the scene. Merin said witnesses told the investigators that Shergill at first refused to turn around when the officers tried to stop him.
“He didn’t turn around until, in front of his home, he turned around,” he said. “And put his hands up in the air and said, ‘Don’t shoot,’ at which time he was killed.” “It just seems like a totally unjustified wanton waste of human life,” Merin added. Shergill will be buried with full military honors at Cherokee Memorial Park in Lodi.
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