'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.
The brown marmorated stink bug, an invasive species in Canada, is thriving in the province this season thanks to summer-like weather extending into the fall months, experts say. Although population counts aren't readily available, the unwelcome intruder is earning notice across the Fraser Valley, Metro Vancouver and parts of the Okanagan, particularly Kelowna.
The Crown is seeking a 12-year prison term for 44-year-old Aydin Coban, who was convicted in August of several offences related to an unrelenting online attack aimed at Port Coquitlam teen Amanda Todd. She endured three years of online stalking and abuse as Coban hid behind aliases and threatened and blackmailed her, before she took her own life in 2012 when she was 15.
Just before 11:00 this morning, the VPD received 9-1-1 calls reporting a man standing at East Hastings and Columbia Street had just fired a gun, then ran out of the area. The witnesses also reported bear spray had been deployed around the same time.
The International Sikh Students Association has long been calling for this change, and launched a petition early this year to move that cap from 20 to 30 hours to up the quality of life for students. Jaspreet Singh, who founded the association, said the government's decision to temporarily lift the cap came as a surprise.
A statement from Victoria police says 67-year-old Scott Graham was last seen in Madrid. The statement says his body has been located but it doesn't say where or when. He was suffering from a medical condition that had the potential to become life-threatening without medication and the alert in August said Graham's family was "deeply concerned" about his disappearance.
Initial indications are that it was a targeted incident. Although the motive of the shooting remains under investigation, the victim is known to police and has gang affiliations. At the time of the shooting the victim was driving a 2016 White Honda Civic and travelling northbound on Scott Road. The suspect vehicle is described as a dark sedan.
