Sikh Couple in Canada (img: IANS)

Updated on Jan 1, at 5.57 p.m.

A Sikh man has said that police spoke to his visiting parents from India just four days before they were killed in a shooting spree in Canada’s Ontario province on Nov 20, 2023. 

Devastated, the couple’s son Gurdit Singh Sidhu, a Canadian citizen, was quoted as per reports saying that he wants to know why and who did this to his parents who were supposed to return to India in January.

He added that why an officer from Peel Regional police’s homicide and missing persons bureau showed up at his property, and spoke to his parents four days before their murder.

“I felt like I should have never called them here.... I am just praying for my sister,” Sidhu said, adding that he hasn’t told her about the parents.

Sidhu, who has quit his job to look after his sister, also said that the first thing that came to his mind after he learnt of the shooting was the police visiting his parents before the killing.

“That’s the question we are trying to ask the police. ‘Why were you here? Why was our family targeted? Why have you not informed us of anything?’ Because for sure they knew something was going to happen,” he said.

“We couldn’t even think these things could happen in Canada. That’s why I took citizenship here - [thinking it was] a safe country.”

Sidhu’s parents were alone at home when Peel police visited the house, located near Mayfield and Airport roads, on Nov 16, 2023.

As neither of them spoke English, they phoned a friend, Daman Preet Singh, who offered to translate the conversation.

Daman was quoted stating that he asked the police officer for his badge number and then answered the officer’s questions about who was staying in the house since Gurdit Singh Sidhu moved in over a year ago.

“The police officer was telling me, ‘we are looking for somebody, that’s why we’re here to identify the people living here,’” said Daman.

Sidhu is clueless as to why Peel police would be asking questions as the area is under the jurisdiction of Ontario provincial police.

Sidhu said Harbhajan told him the police remained parked on the street for close to an hour, and that the police officer left his card with them, which included the badge number.

He said he has asked the police “several times” about the visit but “they are saying ‘we can’t say anything, we have no comments’,” he said.

Updated on Nov 12, 2023, at 4.12 p.m.

A Sikh couple from India who were targeted last month in a shooting spree in the Canadian province of Ontario could have possibly died in a case of mistaken identity, police said.

The shooting incident

Officers from the Ontario Provincial police (OPP) and paramedics responded to reports of a shooting on Mayfield Road near Airport Road, along the Caledon-Brampton border, shortly before midnight on Nov 21.

Upon arrival, they found Jagtar Singh (57) dead on the scene, and rushed his wife Harbhajan Kaur (55) and their daughter to hospital with life threatening injuries.

While Kaur succumbed to her injuries in hospital, their daughter, yet to be identified by the police, continues to battle for life at a trauma centre in Toronto.

Investigators are probing “all aspects of this homicide, including whether or not the victims of this crime were intended targets or not”, detective inspector Brian McDermott, OPP, was quoted as per reports.

“It is still too early to make any firm determinations on that aspect,” he said.

The probe

Launching a homicide investigation soon after the incident, OPP said in a release that they believe “multiple suspects” were involved.

Police also said that an individual was last seen entering a black pickup truck and travelling westbound on Mayfield Road, the newspaper reported.

The couple’s son and daughter had come to Canada as students a few years ago and sponsored their parents as visitors.

According to information posted by a family friend on a fundraising platform, more than 30 bullets were fired by unidentified gunmen when the family was preparing to go to sleep in their rented house in Caledon.

More than 20 bullets were pumped into the body of Kaur alone, damaging her stomach, uterus, intestine, leg, diaphragm, kidneys and lungs, Paramvir Singh wrote on the funding platform.

Doctors told Paramvir that even if the daughter survives, she will not be able to recover for a very long period of time.

They said she is “deeply traumatised and severely wounded, and has not spoken a word since the incident has happened”.

A source close to the family was quoted as per reports saying that they want to make clear that they were not involved in anything that might have led to the shooting incident.

Describing them as “innocent” and ordinary people, the source said the victims do not have any ties to criminal activity.

The source said the family believes the attackers who stormed into the home that night were looking for someone else.

“They mistakenly shot this family thinking it was (that person’s) family,” said the sources.

(Source: IANS)

- Edited for style

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