Winnipeg homicide victim reputed gang member wanted in Punjab

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This article was published 21/09/2023 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Police are investigating the slaying of a 39-year-old man in a northwest Winnipeg neighbourhood Wednesday that could have international implications.

Police found the body of Sukhdool Singh Gill in a duplex on Hazelton Drive in Castlebury Meadows, a new subdivision off King Edward Street near Jefferson Avenue.

Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon would not comment on the veracity of widespread media reports in India on the slaying Thursday, claiming Gill was a gang member wanted in Punjab, an Indian state bordering Pakistan, for a slew of crimes.

The Indian news outlets further alleged a rival gang faction in that country has taken credit for killing Gill, which they reported as a shooting.

“There have been all sorts of… allegations about this individual from India — but we’re working on a local investigation, so we have to go through the steps we typically would,” McKinnon told the Free Press.

“Many investigations… have started narrow and ended up broadening throughout different provinces and even different countries… the information we’ve provided, albeit minimal, is all we can provide.”

She would not say whether investigators are looking into connections to organized crime in the city’s 26th homicide of 2023.

An autopsy is pending. Homicide detectives, who were going door-to-door in the area Thursday, have made no arrests.

The initial Indian press reports, which largely cited social media posts and unnamed sources, were published hours before Winnipeg police confirmed Gill’s death and released his name Thursday.

Gill had not been convicted in Manitoba’s provincial court, records show. McKinnon said she could not say whether city police had any interactions with him.

Access to the duplex at 230/234 Hazelton Dr. was blocked with yellow crime-scene tape.

Forensics police, dressed in white jumpsuits, along with an investigator from the provincial Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, entered and exited from the front door of 230 Hazelton.

There were six apparent bullet holes on the exterior rear wall, while the home’s garage door was left open with no vehicles parked inside.

Neighbours who spoke with the Free Press, most of whom said they are of Punjabi descent, were reluctant to talk on the record. Some expressed fear.

None said they recognized a photograph reportedly of Gill that Indian media have published.

One resident, who lives in the adjacent duplex suite, said he did not hear any gunshots Wednesday.

He said he moved into the rental home at the beginning of September, as did the men in the adjoining suite, who he described as suspicious, adding many other men came and went at all hours of the day and night.

Another nearby resident, a long-haul trucker originally from Punjab who lives with his extended family in Winnipeg, said he was shocked about the violence that occurred down the block.

“It’s bad for the community,” said the 31-year-old man, who did not want to be identified. “(Canada’s) a pretty peaceful country. I would have never expected this to happen.”

He wondered — if Indian media claims about Gill are true — how he was able to get into Canada.

Other members of Winnipeg’s Indian community expressed shock over the news.

“It’s really unfortunate what’s happening in our city,” said Priyanka Singh, president of the India Association of Manitoba.

She woke up Thursday morning to find text messages from friends in India, who had read media reports published overnight.

Singh and other board members had never heard of Gill.

“He’s absolutely not known in Winnipeg,” said Ramandeep Grewal, the India Association of Manitoba’s former president.

Singh said people in the Indian community are closely following the case, as well as escalating diplomatic tensions between the Canadian and Indian governments over the June slaying of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged in the House of Commons that agents of the Indian government may have been linked to the Surrey killing. The Indian government, meantime, has called the allegations baseless — and Nijjar a wanted terrorist.

Some media in India, citing government intelligence sources, have claimed that the man killed in Winnipeg was tied to the Khalistan movement, a separatist movement that wants a sovereign state for Sikhs in the Punjab region.

The national RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service would not comment on the slaying, instead directing requests to the Winnipeg Police Service. The Prime Minister’s Office directed the Free Press to the RCMP.

The Indian High Commission’s press office did not return requests for comment.

Winnipeg police have asked anyone with video or information that might help investigators to call the homicide unit at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477.

— with files from Chris Kitching

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca