Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY Published 8: 42 am ET Sept. 28, 2019Updated 10: 38 am ET Sept. 28, 2019
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Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal, the county’s first Sikh officer, was killed Friday during a traffic stop near Houston. Police have charged a 47 – year-old man with the killing. USA TODAY
A Harris County, Texas, sheriff’s deputy who was the first Sikh to join the force was shot and killed during a traffic stop near Houston on Friday.
A 47 – year-old man wanted for a parole violation has been charged in the killing.
Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal, 42, was considered a trailblazer as the first Sikh deputy when he joined the county force 10 years ago. After his hiring, the sheriff’s office adjusted its regulations to allow him to wear a beard and a turban as an observant Sikh.
Dhaliwal’s dashboard camera showed the officer speaking with the driver in an apparently normal tone with “no combat, no arguing,” Sheriff’s Maj. Mike Lee said.
After Dhaliwal turned to walk back to his patrol car, the driver gets out of his vehicle and “almost immediately running with a gun already out,” Lee said ,the Houston Chronicle reports. The driver shot the deputy at least twice from behind , returned to his car and drove away.
Dhaliwal died after being airlifted to a hospital.
Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal beamed with pride when then-Sheriff@ AdrianGarciaHTXannounced he could wear his Sikh turbin and a beard while on duty.# hounewspic.twitter.com/BN3wnqYoCP
— HCSOTexas (@HCSOTexas (September 27, 2019
The killer “basically just shot him in a very ruthless, cold-blooded way, ”said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. He called Dhaliwal “a hero, a trailblazer.”
Robert Solis, 47, of Houston, was charged Friday night with capital murder in the killing. He was wanted for parole violation involving an alleged assault on a girlfriend. He was arrested at a mall near the shooting after a witness notified police.
Dhaliwal, a father of three young children, joined the force 10 years ago when then-Sheriff Adrian Garcia sought to improve relations with the Sikh community after a domestic violence call at a Sikh family’s home was badly handled by deputies.
“He was a walking lesson in tolerance and understanding, which are values Houstonians uphold here in the nation’s most diverse big city,” said Houston Mayor
Sikhism, the world’s fifth most popular religion, originated in the Punjab region of northern India near the end of the 15 th century.
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A Harris County resident sent us a video of fallen Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal.
“He laughed and joked with all of us, and left a bright impression on my son who is deaf,” she said.
Deputy Dhaliwal is an incredible loss not only to our HCSO family but to the entire community.pic.twitter.com/EbsdFeeWXO
– HCSOTexas (@HCSOTexas) (September) , 2019
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