A man is dead after a daylight shooting in front of the Tim Hortons restaurant on Steveston Highway in Richmond on Saturday evening.
The shooting occurred around 6 p.m. in the busy Coppersmith Corner mall on Steveston Highway, just a half block from the RCMP detachment on No. 5 Road.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation team has identified the victim as 56-year-old Amarjit Singh Sandhu and confirmed the killing was a targeted attack.
Sandhu was the president of Sandhill Development, the company behind the Elements development on 66 Avenue and the Denby townhomes in Murrayville.
“The act of homicide is one that is selfish and cold. There is an extra element of concern when one chooses to commit this crime in such a bold and brazen manner in a very public setting,” said IHIT Staff Sgt. Jennifer Pound. “Fortunately, no other individuals were injured.”
The driver’s door of a black pick-up truck was pockmarked with bullet holes.
The shooting occurred at the dinner hour, when the restaurant would have been busy, and many nearby shops, including Nandos and Canadian Tire, would have still been open.
As of 9:30 p.m., the area remained cordoned off with police tape, and an ambulance remained parked at the scene along with several police cruisers while police officers walking the crowded parking lot.
The victim was taken to hospital after being shot in the head, but did not survive, a source told Black Press. Richmond RCMP confirmed shortly before midnight that the man had died.
