Two men are in custody on charges of murder, following Wednesday morning's fatal shooting of a man near Downtown Turlock.
Pardeep Singh, 21, and Kultar Singh Dhatt, 22, both of Turlock, have been arrested for the murder of Amritpal Singh Sandhu, 21, of Modesto, following an extended car-chase shooting that occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Singh also faces charges of assault with a firearm, and shooting at an inhabited dwelling or occupied car.
The arrests follow an investigation conducted by the Ceres Police Department. Both men are currently in Stanislaus County Jail.
The shooting began at roughly 1:25 a.m. on Highway 99 near Taylor Road. Sandhu called 9-1-1 from the road to report that unknown men were shooting at him from a second vehicle, a dark-colored sedan, while he was traveling southbound.
Shortly thereafter, Turlock police received 9-1-1 calls reporting gunfire in the area of East Main Street and Lyons Avenue. Bullet casings were located on Pioneer Avenue, indicating the fatal shooting likely occurred there.
Sandhu was found dead in his car, a white Inifiniti sedan, just a few blocks away. The car jumped the curb in front of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church at the intersection of East Main Street and Minaret Avenue.
Based on his Facebook account, Sandhu was born in Jalandhar, India. He was part of a secessionist movement which hopes to create a separate Sikh country called Khālistān, which translates as “The Land of the Pure.” Most of his posts are related the 1984 Sikh Massacre in India, which occurred following the shooting of Indira Gandhi.
