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.
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Several charges were approved in May 2021, but the suspect had left the province and a Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest. In January 2022, with the assistance of Laval Police (Service du police de Laval), 33-year-old Quebec resident, Moussa Daoui, was arrested and returned to B.C.
Victims are 23-year-old Kevin Allaraj, and 22-year-old Jeevan Saepan. Both were from the Lower Mainland and known to police. Initial information obtained indicates that this is a targeted incident connected to gang activities.
Police said the suspect was seen waving a gun in the video, making anti-LGBTQ comments, and claiming to live in Palm Beach County, where he said he was going to commit the mass shooting that day.
On the way, he and Defence Minister Anita Anand are stopping in Colorado Springs, Colo., for meetings with commanders and officials from Norad, the joint-command continental defence system slated for upgrade.
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