Sikh couple shot dead in possible case of mistaken identity: Canadian police

Toronto, Dec 11 (IANS) 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.

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 November 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, told Toronto Star newspaper.

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

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 GoFundMe 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 told Toronto Star 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."