Death for killer of first turbaned US Sikh cop

Houston, October 27

Robert Solis, the man convicted of murdering Sandeep Dhaliwal, the first turbaned Indian-American Sikh police officer in the US state of Texas while making a traffic stop in 2019, has been sentenced to death, according to a police official.

The verdict was handed down by the jury, a panel made up of citizens. Solis showed no emotion as the sentence was read on Wednesday. Jurors deliberated for just 35 minutes before recommending the death penalty in the punishment phase of the trial. They deliberated for 25 minutes in the guilt phase.

“Verdict is in: Jurors sentence Robert Solis to death. We are extremely grateful that justice has been served,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted.

Solis, 50, was convicted by the jury of the Harris County Criminal Court in Houston of the capital murder of 42-year-old Dhaliwal, a 10-year-veteran of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Dhaliwal made national headlines when he was allowed to grow a beard and wear a turban on the job. He was gunned down in an ambush-style shooting while conducting a routine mid-day traffic stop in northwest Houston on September 27, 2019.

Authorities said Dhaliwal was shot multiple times from behind after he had stopped Solis in a residential neighbourhood and was walking back to his patrol car. “...Basically just shot him in a very ruthless, cold-blooded way,” said Sheriff Gonzalez in 2019.

Jurors saw multiple angles of the shooting and heard from 65 prosecution witnesses, who testified about a criminal history that goes back more than 30 years. — PTI

Solis shot Dhaliwal in 2019

• Sandeep Dhaliwal (42) was gunned down during a routine mid-day traffic stop in Houston on September 27, 2019.
• Solis (50), convicted by the jury of the Harris County Criminal Court in Houston, had claimed he shot Dhaliwal accidentally.