'We need justice': Wife of Sikh man slain in Canada New Year day shooting
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Jan, 2023 10:46 AM
Toronto, Jan 17 (IANS) The wife of a 51-year-old Sikh man, who was shot dead when intruders broke into his Mill Woods house in Canada on New Year, has said that she needs swift justice for her husband.
Barinder Singh, who hails from Punjab and had moved to Edmonton in 2019 along with family, was asleep when intruders broke into his house at Mill Woods Road and started firing, the Global News reported.
Police responded to a disturbance around 2.45 a.m., and arrived at the complex in the Pollard Meadows neighbourhood to find an injured 51-year-old man lying in a pool of blood.
"It's all like a nightmare for us," a shattered Jasjeet Kaur, wife of Singh, told Global News.
Singh was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. The autopsy revealed that he died from gunshot wounds and the medical examiner said that the manner of death was a homicide.
"We need justice. I just want to know who did this. I need to know. Whya Why my family was the target? And it was not just him -- it was the whole family," Jasjeet Kaur told the Canadian news channel. "I want the culprits. I want to know the reason why it happened."
A GoFundMe page set up for Singh described him as an "honest, family man who worked hard to provide for his family".
"(He was) a devoted son, a good brother and a caring father -- he kept us going through good times and tough times. Through his work, he supported my grandparents in Punjab, while providing for us in Delhi, India," the page quoted his two daughters as saying.
Police said it is still working to establish a motive for this violent crime. So far, the homicide unit has found a burnt-out white Dodge Ram truck in the nearby Laurel neighbourhood, which they think is connected to the crime.
They are looking for home security and dashcam footage in the area where the burned-out truck was located.
A statement from Nanaimo RCMP says an on-duty officer witnessed the collision around 9:30 p.m. Monday and administered first aid until Emergency Health Services personnel arrived to take the pedestrian to hospital, where he later died.
Prof. Carolyn Whitzman, a University of Ottawa housing and social policy expert, says policy changes ranging from requiring municipal governments to approve more multi-housing developments to introducing provincial policies that make more government land available for housing could help the problem.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Tuesday that people over age 70 in the community, Indigenous people 55 and up and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable will also be included in a vaccination campaign that will ramp up through the spring.
Changes to the Transportation Act were introduced Tuesday, which the government says would allow the province to shape growth around transit, increase housing density and build connected communities.
According to New York police the assault on Nirmal Singh was unprovoked. Singh said that he was allegedly punched from behind on a Sunday morning walk around 7 a.m. on 95th Avenue and Lefferts Blvd. in Richmond Hill.
Just two days later, the same owner reported he had found what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail device inside his house, but the container had not ignited. Police say they reviewed video surveillance and arrested a suspect in his mid-40s who remains in custody.
