Teen Pleads Guilty to Killing Sikh American Grocery Store Owner Satnam Singh in Utah
- Anthony Garcia was 15 at the time he entered Super Grocery on Feb. 28, went to the counter, pointed the gun at Singh, and pulled the trigger four times.
More than six months after Satnam Singh was robbed and killed in the grocery store he owned and worked at in Ogden, Utah, his murderer, a teenager, pleaded guilty to the crime, last month. The teen, identified by The Salt Lake Tribune as Anthony Garcia, was 15 at the time he entered Super Grocery on Feb. 28. At the counter, Garcia is said to have pointed a gun at Singh. Then after telling him “this is a stick-up,” he pulled the trigger four times. Singh, 65, was struck twice and died on the scene. Garcia fled on foot.
Police found him two days later when they were called to an unspecified “juvenile disturbance” at a home, the Standard-Examiner reported at the time. When the police arrived on the scene, they were told that the 15-year-old boy there was the killer in the grocery shooting. Officers also found clothing identical to that seen on the security video at the store. They also found a gun, allegedly used in the shooting.
During interviews with the police, Garcia admitted to planning the robbery because he “did not have as much cash as he wanted” news reports quoted him as saying. He Tod the police that he had smoked THC the day prior but “stopped smoking so that he could be sober for the robbery.”
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Garcia was initially charged with two first-degree felony counts of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. “The aggravated murder charge was amended to a first-degree felony count of discharge of a weapon involving serious bodily harm or death in exchange for his guilty plea,” the report said, citing court documents. According to the documents, “Garcia will be sentenced to imprisonment and be provisionally housed in a secure care facility until he’s 21 years old, at which time he willS be considered for parole.”
Singh’s online obituary says he was born in Punjab and immigrated to the U.S. in 1987. He owned and ran the Super Grocery for 21 years. He is survived by his wife Rashpal Kaur, his daughters: Tajinder Kaur, Amandeep Kaur, and Bhavjeet Kaur, and an extended family of sisters and brothers.
Singh was loved in the Ogden community, and a memorial of candles and flowers was placed outside of his store after his death, according to FOX13. “Twenty-one years of a community legacy represents a lifetime of tradition, faith, honor, and love,” the family said in a statement. “We encourage everyone to continue Satnam Singh’s legacy of love.”
(Top photo, screengrab ABC4)