Tibetan from India among US shooting victims

Washington, April 4 (IANS) A recent Tibetan immigrant from India, the latest identified victim of Monday's shooting rampage at a small California university, worked for five years in the education department of Tibet's government-in-exile in Dharamsala. Another shooting victim was Sikkim-born Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, 38, of San Francisco.

He was killed when the gunman stole his car outside the school Monday morning.

But after Sonam Chodon, 33, moved to the Bay Area about two years ago, she swiftly immersed herself into its tight-knit Tibetan-American community and decided to take up a new career in nursing, San Jose Mercury News reported citing her friends.

Those dreams ended Monday when she became one of seven people shot and killed at East Oakland's Oikos University, the school where she was taking nursing classes. The killing cast a pall on a Tibetan-American community that sent many aspiring nurses to the small Christian university, Mercury News said.

"It's really sad that people came from Tibet, and from other places, for safety and a better life and this happens to them," Thepo Tulku, one of the founding members of the East Bay's Tibetan exile community, was quoted as saying.

"She's a really caring person," Tulku said. "That's why her dream was to be a nurse, helping people."

Meanwhile, Indian American nursing student Dawinder Kaur, 19, and two other survivors have been released from Highland Hospital.

Kaur, who was shot in the arm, was doing well physically after being treated for her injuries but was still under the shock of the murders, her family said.

Meanwhile CNN reported that city police claim the alleged shooter One L. Goh, 43, "does not appear to be remorseful at all."

The police believe Goh was disgruntled after being expelled from the university earlier this year and felt ostracized and "picked on," it said.

"This was a calculated, cold-blooded execution in the classroom," Police Chief Howard Jordan was quoted as saying.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)