41-year-old Indian-origin Sikh Harpreet Singh Uppal and his son were gunned down by an unknown number of shooters a outside a gas station in Canada's Edmonton on Thursday, 9 October.
Meanwhile, a friend of Uppal's son, who was in the car at the time of the shooting, survived without injuries.
According to the Edmonton Journal, the Edmonton Police Service's acting Superintendent Colin Derksen told the media on Friday that while the police was unaware of whether the shooter(s) knew about the presence of children in the car when the began following Uppal, "...once the shooter or the shooters learned that the son was there, they intentionally shot and killed him."
Derksen described Uppal as "higher-level figure" within the organised crime scene in Edmonton but did not specify his affiliation to a group or entity, the report added. According to reports, he was allegedly associated with the Brothers' Keepers' (BK) gang,
According to CBC News, Uppal was also facing separate charges for cocaine possession, trafficking and illegal possession of body armour. He was further charged with assault with a weapon and unauthorised possession of a firearm with regards to a March 2021 case.
Canadian media reports suggest that Uppal's killing is part of a war between the United Nations (UN) gang and the BK." It added that purported UN gangster Parmvir Chahil was shot dead in Toronto a day before was killed.
Meanwhile, Derksen claimed that it was early to connect Uppal's killing with violence in other parts of Canada.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)