Edmonton Police Service shoulder badge in Edmonton, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson.
EDMONTON – A known gang member was tracked down, shot and killed along with his 11-year-old son on Thursday while they were in a car parked outside an Edmonton fast-food restaurant, police say.
Acting Supt. Colin Derksen told reporters Friday that the boy was not caught in the line of fire but deliberately killed. A second boy around the same age, a friend of the dead child, was also in the car.
“Thankfully, he was not harmed – physically, anyway,” Derksen said of the boy who escaped.
He said the two boys had just gone inside the A&W, which shares space with a Petro-Canada gas station, before the shooting.
Derksen said the lunch-hour shooting in the crowded suburban shopping plaza, with other businesses, including a daycare, is the latest example of escalating gang violence in the city.
“The landscape has changed out there,” he said. “There’s no longer any respect for children, families or innocent citizens amongst our gangsters when they carry out violence to further their own interests.”
The dead boy’s name was not released, but his father was identified as 41-year-old Harpreet Uppal.
“Mr. Uppal was very well known to us, very high up in the gang drug world,” Derksen said. “We had worked very hard over the years to try to warn and give him opportunities to step out of that lifestyle and keep him and his family safe.”
Derksen said there had been previous attempts on Uppal’s life. Two years ago, he was shot at in a pizza restaurant.
A man was arrested in that shooting but charges against him were recently stayed, said Derksen.
The busy corner where the shooting took place in the southeast quadrant of the city had returned to normal Friday. The only sign of the shooting was a teddy bear and a few flowers attached to a nearby light post.
Police are investigating a possible link between the shooting and a stolen, burned-out SUV found on a road nearby. The vehicle was unoccupied.
The motivation for the shooting – whether retribution or control – wasn’t immediately clear, said Derksen. The targeted nature of the shooting was.
“We absolutely believe (Uppal) was followed with the intention of finding him and ending his life. With the young boy, we don’t know yet. What we do know already is that once the shooter or shooters learned the son was there, they intentionally killed him.
“That is sick and twisted.”
Derksen said gang violence in public places has increased in Edmonton in recent years.
Officers have responded to 196 shootings so far this year, a 46-per-cent increase over the same time last year.
While such shootings are almost always gang-related, Derksen said they are incredibly dangerous for public bystanders.
“We’re lucky we’re not reporting on additional deaths or injuries today.”
Still, Derksen said he didn’t want to create panic.
He said no arrests have yet been made. Officers were interviewing many people who witnessed the killings.
Uppal’s family is also “engaged” with police and sharing information, he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2023.
