Merced County Sheriff’s Office releases CCTV footage showing how four-member Sikh family were kidnapped at gunpoint in California. Twitter/@MercedSheriff
New Delhi: A CCTV footage showing how the four-member Sikh family, including an eight-month-old baby girl, who were found dead on Wednesday in California, US, were kidnapped at gunpoint on Monday has now been released. The surveillance footage has been released by the Merced County Sheriff’s Office.
The video shows Jasdeep Singh (36), his wife Jasleen Kaur (27), their 8-month-old daughter Aroohi Dheri, and the infant’s uncle Amandeep Singh (39), had their hands zip-bound by the armed kidnapper and were abducted at gunpoint. They were then forcibly taken inside a truck.
The footage showed that the two brothers — Jasdeep and Amandeep, who originally are from Harsi Pind in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, arriving at the premises of their newly opened trucking business in central California on Monday (3 October). There, Jasdeep saw a man who had a trash bag. The man later seems to have pulled out a weapon.
The video further shows Jasdeep and Amandeep coming out with their hands zip-tied behind their backs. A gunman can been escorting them.
The gunman is then seen entering again in the trailer that served as the business office and moments later, takes Jasleen who is seen carrying her eight-month baby and taking them away in a truck.
The clip also shows that the suspect carrying out checks at the property before getting into conversation with Amandeep and followed him up a ram.
The footage shows the suspect donning a dark-coloured hoodie and covering his face with a mask. He was seen walking around a parking lot with a white trash bag in hand. The video also shows a dog at the compound where the kidnapping took place.
The Singhs ran Unison Trucking Inc., a trucking company, in Merced about 200 km southeast of San Francisco.
Also Read: Kidnapped Indian-origin family, including baby, found dead in US orchard
The Merced sheriff’s office said that family went missing on Monday after firefighters found Amandeep’s truck set ablaze. The family then tried to reach out to Amandeep, Jasdeep and Jasleen but they failed to contact them. The family members then called the Merced County Sheriff’s office to report them missing.
A Reuters report said that their family said nothing was stolen from the business. No ransom demand was made. But the victims were all wearing jewellery. The police, however, said an ATM card belonging to one of the victims was used in Atwater.
Indian-origin family kidnapped at gunpoint in California found dead
The bodies of Jasdeep Singh, Jasleen Kaur, their eight-month-old child, and the baby’s uncle were found on Wednesday evening in an orchard near Indiana Road and Hutchinson Road in an “extremely” rural and remote area, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said.
“Our worst fears have been confirmed,” Sheriff Vern Warnke said.
He went on to say that a farm worker near the orchard found the bodies and immediately contacted authorities.
“All of the bodies were found close together. There are no words to describe the anger I feel,” Warnke said during a press conference.
“There’s a special place in hell for this guy,” he said about Jesus Manuel Salgado, the suspect, who attempted to kill himself. “It’s horribly, horribly senseless,” he added.
48-year-old convicted robber taken in custody for kidnapping, killing four-member Sikh family in California
Jesus Salgado, a 48-year-old convicted robber, considered a “person of interest” has been taken into custody in connection with kidnapping and murdering the four India-origin family members in California.
Must Read: Sikh family, including 8-month-old, goes missing in America as prime suspect attempts suicide
Relatives of Salgado contacted the police after he confessed to being involved in the kidnappings. He also tried to take his own life before the police arrived at a home in nearby Atwater. He has been hospitalised since.
The police chief said that Salgado has talked to investigators, but did not provide details.
With inputs from agencies
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