Indian-Canadian shot dead in shopping centre's parking lot in Toronto
Police say killing appears targeted, victim identified as 37-year-old Chandan Kumar Raja Nandakumar; Father appeals to the Indian Govt. to bring son's body back to India
A 37-year-old Indian-Canadian died after being shot by unidentified men in the parking lot of a busy shopping centre in Toronto, Canada, police said.
In a statement on Sunday, the Toronto Police Service identified the victim as Chandan Kumar Raja Nandakumar of Brampton.
On Saturday, at approximately 3.31 pm, police responded to a call for a shooting in the parking lot of Woodbine Shopping Centre located at Rexdale Boulevard and Highway 27, the statement said.
It said police officers found a man with gunshot wounds when they arrived at the scene. The victim was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The suspect, or suspects, fled the scene in a vehicle, police said.
The victim succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, they said.
Nandakumar, originally from Karnataka, was an IT professional. The shooting marks Toronto’s third homicide of the year.
Images taken from the scene show a white SUV with bullet holes in the windshield and a shattered window on the driver’s side, according to CTV News.
It said the circumstances surrounding the shooting are not known, but officers believe it was a “targeted” incident.
“I can understand how a shooting like this, especially at a mall, can cause concern for the safety of the public,” Insp. Errol Watson was quoted as saying by the CBC news.
“Officers will be canvassing for any witnesses, video and evidence.”
At this time, the incident is believed to be targeted and not “random,” Watson said, adding that police are still working to gather details on how many suspects there are and how many gunshots were fired.
Parents had wanted victim to return home
Parents of the victim, before the incident, had been asking their son to return home for some time but he did not pay heed.
They suspect that his efforts to form a Kannada association there could be a reason behind his killing. The deceased hailed from Thyamagondlu in Nelamangala on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
The entire locality where Kumar lived has plunged into grief after coming to know of his fate.
“We had never expected this, not even in our dreams. We had been telling him to come back as it has been six to seven years since he left for Canada but he did not listen to us,” his father Nanda Kumar told a vernacular news channel.
Nanda Kumar appealed to the Government of India to help him bring his son’s body to the country so that his cremation could be performed here.
The victim’s mother claimed Chandan Kumar had formed a Kannada association in Toronto, which could be the reason behind his killing.
