MILTON, Ont. — An international student from India became the latest victim of a deadly shooting rampage that previously killed two people in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas earlier this week.
Halton Regional Police issued a news release on Saturday saying 28-year-old Satwinder Singh had died in a Hamilton hospital surrounded by family and friends, but did not indicate his date of death.
Singh was working at the same auto shop in Milton, Ont., where the owner, 38-year-old Shakeel Ashraf, was killed during the second of the two shootings to take place on Monday afternoon. Hours before, 48-year-old Toronto Police Const. Andrew Hong was killed while at a coffee shop in Mississauga, Ont., in what police have since described as a targeted attack by a shooter who was deliberately on the lookout for an officer.
“This is heartbreaking news for our community which hasn’t even begun to heal from Monday’s traumatic events,” Halton Regional Police Chief Stephen Tanner said in Saturday’s release. “I urge everyone to reach out and ask for help if they need it.”
Monday’s shootings began in Mississauga when a gunman — since identified by police as 40-year-old Sean Petrie — parked his car near the Tim Hortons where Hong was killed. Police said they believed Petrie was living out of that car, a red Toyota Corolla.
Petrie waited at the Tim Hortons for two hours and 15 minutes before shooting Hong at close range in what police have called an ambush attack.
Police said Petrie then moved on to Milton, where he fatally shot Singh and Ashraf at MK Auto Repairs.
Police said Petrie had worked for a short time at the auto shop, but don’t know whether he was employed at the time of the shooting.
Tanner had previously indicated a 28-year-old international exchange student working part-time at the auto shop was on life support and was “not expected to survive,” but had not released the student’s name. A 34-year-old man was also shot in the leg while working at the same auto shop and is recovering at home after being released from hospital, Tanner said on Thursday.
Petrie died shortly after Monday’s shootings in a confrontation with police in Hamilton.
A funeral for Hong, remembered as a skilled 22-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service and devoted husband and father to two teenage children, is set for Wednesday at the Toronto Congress Centre in the city’s northwest corridor, police said.
At Ashraf’s funeral, held last Wednesday, mourners described him as a doting father, caring community member and talented cricket player.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2022.
