A 23-year-oldIndian was found murdered at an apartment in Truro town of Canada’s Nova Scotiaprovince, with community members suspecting it a racially- motivated hatecrime, according to media reports.
David MacNeil of the Truro Police Servicesaid a 911 call from 494 Robie St at 2 am on Sunday brought officers to theapartment building, where they found a man with life-threatening injuries, CBCCanada reported.
MacNeil confirmed the victim was PrabhjotSingh Katri who later died of his injuries. Singh worked for Layton's taxi aswell as one or two restaurants in Truro.
Police are treating the death as a homicide,the report said. A man was arrested in connection with the murder but was laterreleased.
"We executed several search warrants onthe weekend and we did have a person of interest that was arrested shortlyafter. However, they have since been released from our custody without chargesrelated to this homicide at this time," MacNeil said.
"That man remains a person ofinterest," he said. MacNeil said he met with the victim's family, friends,and members of the local Indian-Canadian community Sunday night to express hiscondolences.
Singh came to Canada from India in 2017
"Singh was a hard-working young man with a bright future and this is anabsolutely senseless loss of life," MacNeil said. "The community isoutraged by this."
A GoFundMe has been set up in an effort tosend Singh's body to India, CTV News reported. Singh's friends are worriedthat the attack was a racially motivated hate crime, the reportsaid. Jatinder Kumardeep said Singh was "an innocent guy coming backfrom his job. He drives a taxi."
Kumardeep said he has not slept since hisfriend died. Kumardeep said there are few international students in Truro, somost get to know each other. They both come from Punjab, India, and so bondedin Nova Scotia. "We feel very unsafe," he said.
"We are also people. Brown people alsomatter. We are giving our everything to this country," he said. "Whyis this happening to us?" Agampal Singh said his friend was a goodperson. "Nothing was robbed. Even his phone was in his pocket,"Singh said. "We don't have any idea why this happened."
His friend had no enemies, hesaid. "He was a very innocent guy. Never had bad company, neversmoked, never drank, he didn't touch drugs. He had only a few friendshere," Agampal said.
"He didn't talk with people he didn'tknow. I think it might be a hate crime." "We are coming to thiscountry for a good future," he said. "We are not safe. I can't evensleep." MacNeil, however, said, "Contrary to social media, we have noinformation on the motive that we're releasing at this point intime," "We don't believe there is any ongoing threat to thepublic," he added, without offering the reasons behind that assessment.
He did not say if the police think the attackwas random, or that the attacker targeted Singh. MacNeil said the investigationwas ongoing. The crime scene at the apartment building has beenreleased. Police did not release the victim's name, nor provideinformation on any suspects.