US FIRST Lady Michelle Obama met on Thursday (August 23) with relatives of the victims of the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin earlier this month.
“It’s my honor to be here with you,” Obama said during the visit to the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek. “I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances, but I am anxious to meet with the families and lend whatever support I can.”
The Sikh community said in a statement following the visit that Obama had “brought comfort and assurance during a period that has been marked with tremendous sorrow and grief.”
Police blame the August 5 shooting, which killed six people and wounded three, on Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old former US Army specialist.
Page, who killed himself with a gunshot wound to the head, was associated with neo-Nazi groups and the authorities are treating the incident as a case of domestic terrorism.
US investigators have yet to establish a motive for the killings, but they are looking into Page’s links with white supremacist hate groups.
President Barack Obama has condemned the “senseless violence,” which came just days after a July 20 shooting at a packed midnight premiere of the latest Batman movie in Colorado that left 12 people dead and dozens wounded.
