Second accused charged for shooting Sikh man to death in Canada
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 21 Jun, 2023 05:26 PM
Toronto, June 21 (IANS) A second accused has been charged with first-degree murder in a New Year's Day shooting that left a 51-year-old Sikh father dead and his 21-year-old daughter injured in Canada.
Daqwan Roshayne Howard Lee, 28, was arrested on Monday and charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharging a firearm with intent, Edmonton police said.
Police said Barinder Singh and his daughter were "innocent victims of a wrongly targeted crime".
Lee is the second person charged in the shooting, after Tevahn Orr, 31, who was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant, turned himself in to the Hamilton Police Service on March 21.
Orr was also charged with first degree murder, aggravated assault and discharging a firearm with intent.
On January 1, patrol officers responded to the report of a disturbance at a residence in the area of 16A Avenue and 38 Street.
Upon arrival, officers located an injured man and woman.
EMS responded, treated and transported Singh to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The 21-year-old woman was also taken to hospital with serious, non-life-threatening injuries and was later released.
A week later, the Edmonton Medical Examiner completed an autopsy on Singh and determined the cause of death to be gunshot wounds.
The manner of death was homicide.
Singh had moved from Punjab to Edmonton in 2019 along with his family.
The family told Global News the four of them were asleep when the front door was smashed in and bullets began flying.
"Somebody broke into the house," said Singh's wife Jasjeet Kaur.
"We all were sleeping and there was a number of gunshots."It's all like a nightmare for us," a shattered Kaur had said earlier responding to the tragedy.
Darcy Sidoruk was 18 years old in 1982 when he pleaded guilty and was sentenced for the shooting two years earlier of family friend Yvonne Doucette in Dawson Creek. Sidoruk also admitted to shooting 19-year-old James Pitt, who picked him up hitchhiking outside Dawson Creek, shortly after the murder of Doucette.
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Indian-origin MP Chandra Arya marked Canada's first Hindu Heritage Month beginning frorm November to acknowledge and celebrate contributions made by Hindus to make the country strong and prosperous. The Canadian House of Commons had passed a unanimous resolution moved by Arya earlier this year to have November proclaimed as the Hindu Heritage Month.
Via release, police say they found a 25-year-old man suffering from gunshot wounds. He was transported to hospital where he is in stable condition. According to Mounties, initial indications are that this is an isolated incident and involves parties known to each other.
The total health spending in Canada is still expected to rise by 0.8 per cent this year, however that's much lower than the 7.6 per cent increase seen in 2021, and the 13.2 per cent surge in 2020. The annual report released Thursday said the country's health spending, including public and private expenditure.
Environment Canada says downpours over the inner south coast, including eastern Vancouver Island, Sunshine Coast and Metro Vancouver will deliver between 30 and 70 millimetres of rain. But it says chilly conditions could mean the rain falls as wet snow at slightly higher elevations across Metro Vancouver before conditions warm up on Friday.
