‘I didn’t feel safe’: neighbours handcuffed after Hazelton Drive killing

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This article was published 22/09/2023 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Neighbours of a Winnipeg home where a man was found slain Wednesday morning had no idea what had happened — until police entered their duplex unit with guns drawn.

Vikas Mor said he and his roommates were handcuffed and held by police until officers confirmed they were not involved in the homicide next door.

“We were shocked,” said Mor, who was in his underwear when police burst in and led him and his friends outside. “I didn’t feel safe.”

Sukhdool Singh Gill, 39, was dead when police arrived at the neighbouring duplex unit, at 230 Hazelton Dr., at about 10 a.m.

Six apparent bullet holes were visible in the exterior rear wall.

Mor said police asked him and his roommates if they heard gunshots.

“We didn’t hear anything,” he said. “My window was open, and I didn’t hear anything.”

Indian media reports claim Gill, also known as Sukha Duneke, was an Indian citizen and gang member wanted for alleged involvement in crimes in the northern state of Punjab.

Reports allege a rival gang had taken credit for Gill’s slaying.

Hours before he was killed, Gill was among 43 people named on a wanted list published on X (formerly known as Twitter) by India’s National Investigation Agency.

The NIA is a specialized counter-terrorism law enforcement agency. Indian media reports claimed many of the wanted people were based in Canada or had links to a movement to create an independent Sikh state in the Punjab region.

India’s government has designated a number of pro-Khalistan individuals or groups as terrorists or extremists.

The duplex where Gill was found dead is located in Castlebury Meadows, a new subdivision off King Edward Street near Jefferson Avenue.

Mor said the front door of his home was wide open when police arrived, because a roommate was cooking. Mor was in his bedroom when officers entered their home.

Mor said the officers, which he likened to a “SWAT team,” had their guns drawn as they went through the home.

The roommates were placed in police cars and questioned, Mor said, adding he and at least one other man were in their underwear.

He said the roommates were released after telling police they had nothing to do with the city’s 26th homicide of the year.

“I can confirm that the (neighbours)… were interviewed at the onset of the investigation,” police spokesman Const. Claude Chancy wrote in an email Friday.

Police wouldn’t say, however, if the neighbours were handcuffed.

Mor believes a group of men lived in the unit where the slaying happened. He said he had never talked to Gill and was not aware of him.

Neighbours described seeing people in luxury cars coming and going from 230 Hazelton Dr.

The Winnipeg Police Service homicide unit is investigating the killing. Detectives and forensics officers returned to the taped-off scene Friday.

Police had not announced any arrests.

Amid the claims by Indian media, the WPS is investigating the incident as a local homicide, said Chancy.

“Anecdotally, should any other outside factors be established or confirmed through an investigation, the homicide unit would liaise and co-operate with applicable outside law enforcement agencies,” he wrote in the email.

Anyone with information about the homicide is asked to call police at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477.

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The slaying happened amid escalating diplomatic tensions between the Canadian and Indian governments over the June slaying of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed agents of the Indian government may have been linked to Nijjar’s killing.

India’s government denied the claims and called Nijjar a terrorist.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.