3 people killed not intended targets of Mississauga, Caledon shootings

Police visited a Caledon family just days before they were gunned down in their home, leaving two victims dead in what police are now calling a string of botched targeted shootings that left a total of three people dead including a Mississauga man.

Jagraj Singh was shot and killed on the night of Nov. 15 while working at a business in an industrial area near Winston Churchill Boulevard and Royal Windsor Drive in Mississauga.

An international student who’d only recently arrived in Canada, the 29-year-old’s killing is just one of three shooting deaths that police now say are connected and went after the wrong targets.

“Investigators have determined that Mr. Singh was not the intended target, and it was simply the wrong place at the wrong time,”  Peel Regional Police Homicide Inspector Todd Custance told reporters in an update on Thursday.

Police have launched Project Midnight – a joint investigation with the OPP looking into several shootings including Singh’s death and the killing of Caledon couple Jagtar Singh and Harbhajan Kaur.

The husband and wife were shot to death on Nov. 20, with the OPP saying multiple suspects came to their Caledon home in a black pickup truck.

RELATED: Murder victim was targeted, police probing latest Mississauga homicide say

Jagtar was pronounced dead at the scene while Kaur was rushed to hospital where she later died. The couple’s daughter also suffered multiple gunshot wounds and is still in hospital. A fundraiser for the family says their daughter Jaspreet was “shot with 13 bullets.”

Investigators say the family were also mistakenly targeted by the killers, and were visited by Peel police officers just days before the shooting. Police say the visit was related to the investigation into the killing of Jagraj Singh in Mississauga.

“We had no information at that time that the occupants were in any danger,” Custance said, adding that homicide detectives will visit “dozens if not hundreds of addresses” during an investigation.

And while investigators say evidence has linked the two incidents and several drive-by or targeted shootings, Custance said that the owners of the Caledon property were not connected to the Nov. 15 killing of Jagraj Singh.

The home on Mayfield Road home is owned by a numbered company that is not owned by the Sidhu family, according to the CBC.

“We want to emphasize that the three victims were innocent, and mistakenly targeted,” OPP Det. Insp. Brian McDermott said on Thursday.

Between Nov. 7 and Nov. 20, police say several homes and businesses were shot up in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon. A pickup truck stolen in Mississauga was allegedly used in the Caledon killings, which was later found burned out in a vehicle fire near Olde Base Line Road and Creditview Road.

The killings and shootings are similar to extortion attempts targeting members of the South Asian community in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, but a police spokesperson says the shootings under investigation in Project Midnight are not believed to be connected to the extortion incidents.

Police have set up a tip line and anyone with information on these shooting incidents is asked to contact investigators by calling 1-833-941-5570. You can also leave anonymous tips by contacting Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or visiting www.peelcrimestoppers.ca.