Oak Creek police chief struck by the Sikh's peaceful reactions since the shooting

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The Oak Creek police chief says he’s struck by the Sikh community’s peaceful reactions to the shooting massacre at their temple. John Edwards told hundreds of people at a vigil in Oak Creek last night that such incidents often prompt anger and calls for revenge. But the chief says he has seen neither. Sikh leaders say they advocate peace – and Americans need to learn more about them because too many confuse the Sikhs for Muslims and Arabs. Organizers of the vigil asked people to cover their heads with handkerchiefs, and most complied. U-S Senator Herb Kohl, U-S House members Gwen Moore and Paul Ryan, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, and Governor Scott Walker were among those who attended. Walker excused himself early after his wife went to a hospital with stomach pains. Attendees held candles and prayed for the shooting victims. Sikh member Karan Singh Toor said there was a mix of races in the audience – and it made her proud to be an American. Authorities continue to investigate the shootings, and the Sikh Coalition says it wants to know the motive. White supremist Wade Michael Page may have acted on his beliefs – but investigators say that cannot be proven yet. And they may never know the full story of why the shootings happened.

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The woman who broke up with Wade Michael Page just weeks before he committed the Oak Creek temple shootings was arrested last night. Police searched Misty Cook’s apartment in South Milwaukee about the same time they searched Page’s duplex in Cudahy. And officers found a gun that Cook was not supposed to have, because she was convicted of a felony in 2005 for fleeing police officers in Milwaukee County. The district attorney’s office will now decide whether to charge the 31-year-old Cook with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Authorities have said that Cook, a nursing student, had no role in Sunday’s shooting spree in which Page shot nine people at the Sikh Temple before an Oak Creek officer killed him. Three victims were still in critical condition yesterday, including police lieutenant Brian Murphy. The Journal Sentinel said Cook may have shared Page’s white supremist beliefs – and she’s apparently why Page moved to Wisconsin in November of last year. The paper’s Web site today has a photo showing Cook with members of the white supremist group Volksfront. Cook said she would not comment, saying her words could not ease the pain the victims’ families are going through.

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The mayor of Oak Creek said yesterday that he appreciated getting a phone call from the mayor of Aurora Colorado. Steve Hogan leads the place where a dozen people were killed and almost 60 were injured last month during a midnight screening of a new Batman movie. And after Sunday’s shooting massacre at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Hogan figured that Oak Creek Mayor Steve Scaffidi would want to hear from him – so he called on Sunday evening. Scaffidi said he received advice from Hogan on how to pull the community together after a major tragedy. Scaffidi, who was elected in April, said it’s something police officers train for, but not mayors. He said Oak Creek does not want to be defined by the shooting spree – and it’s a place that has a lot to be proud of.

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