Toronto: Canadian police have arrested a 32-year-old man in connection with the killing of 21-year-old Indian student Harsimrat Randhawa, who was fatally shot by a stray bullet during a gang shootout in Hamilton, Ontario earlier this year.
The accused, Jerden Foster, was taken into custody in Niagara Falls on Tuesday and has been charged with first-degree murder, Hamilton police said. He also faces three counts of attempted murder.
Harsimrat, a second-year physiotherapy student at Mohawk College, was shot on April 17 while waiting at a bus stop near the intersection of Upper James Street and South Bend Road.
She had reportedly just left a local gym and was on her way home when gunfire erupted between individuals involved in a gang conflict. She succumbed to her injuries in hospital.
Police said at least seven individuals were involved in the gang war, which unfolded across four vehicles. Multiple shots were fired and at least two firearms were used in the incident.
“Harsimrat was an innocent passerby,” Acting Detective-Sergeant Daryl Reid said at a press conference on Thursday. “She was on her way home from a local gym when she was shot dead.”
Reid added that Foster was previously known to police and had links to the Hamilton, Halton, and Niagara regions, where he had lived in various short-term rental properties.
“The investigation is still ongoing and we will do everything we can to identify, find, and arrest all of the people involved in this death,” Reid said. No further arrests have been made so far.
