RANA SINGH SODHI REMEMBERS HIS MURDERED BROTHER

posted by Lucy Valencia

Four days after watching the televised collapse of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, a man took one look at Balbir Singh Sodhi's turban and beard, a custom of Sikh faith, and fatally shot him at a gasoline station the Indian man owned in Mesa.

Sodhi and his brother, Rana Singh Sodhi, left India to escape ethnic violence and find a better life in America, and instead found themselves caught in more ethnic violence. Rana Singh Sodhi will tell the story on Arizona Week Friday, recounting memories of his older brother nearly 10 years after the incident.

On the morning of Sept. 15, 2001, Frank Silva Roque, then 42, drove his truck to a Chevron station and fired five or six shots at Balbir Sodhi, who was outside speaking with a landscaper.

Roque continued his rampage by firing his .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol at a home he had previously owned and which he had sold to an Afghan couple. Though family members were home, no one was hurt.

Roque then drove to a Mobil gasoline station and sprayed bullets through the convenience store window at the clerk, who was of Lebanese descent, but missed.

The rampage shook an already mourning country, leaving many feeling harassed because of their race or ethnicity.

Roque told police he was lashing out at "Arabs," according to The Arizona Republic. He was arrested on the evening of the shootings.

Police charged Roque with one count of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, reckless endangerment and three counts of drive-by shooting. He was sentenced to the death penalty for the murder.

“I stand for America all the way,” Roque said as he was being handcuffed by Mesa police, according to the East Valley Tribune. He pleaded insanity but was judged sane and a jury found him guilty.

Roque's sentence was reduced to life in prison without parole in 2006.