Shooting of Sikh family in Canada case of mistaken identity: Police

PTI, Dec 12, 2023, 10:39 AM IST

Ottawa: A Sikh family from India who was targeted last month in a shooting spree in the Canadian province of Ontario that killed one person was possibly a case of mistaken identity, provincial police have said.

Jagtar Singh, 57, was killed while his wife Harbhajan Kaur, 55, and their daughter were critically injured during a shooting on Mayfield Road near Airport Road, along the Caledon-Brampton border, on November 21.

Officers from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and paramedics upon arrival found Jagtar Singh dead on the scene, and rushed Kaur and their daughter to hospital with life-threatening injuries, the Toronto Star newspaper reported on Monday.

Officers are investigating “all aspects of this homicide, including whether or not the victims of this crime were intended targets or not”, OPP Detective Inspector Brian McDermott said.

“It is still too early to make any firm determinations on that aspect.” According to a source close to the victims who spoke on condition of anonymity, the family wants to make clear that they were not involved in anything that might have led to the November 20 shooting in the home they were renting.

Describing them as “innocent” and ordinary people, the source said the victims did not have any ties to criminal activity and had no connection to an illegal trucking operation at the same address, which had recently been shut down by the Town of Caledon.

The source said the man and his wife were visiting family from India when they were shot.

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,” they said.

Investigators have not said whether the shooting was linked to the business.

The source said the family was not connected to the business and was simply renting the upper part of the house. The basement unit was also being rented out.

“This was a normal family,” a representative of Gurudwara Jot Parkash Sahib, a Sikh place of worship in Brampton, said days after the shooting.

“Everyone is shocked,” the Gurudwara representative added.