Grieving Surrey mother seeks justice for slain son
VANCOUVER — Grieving mother Kal Sandhu wants justice in the slaying of her son who was doing nothing more than sitting in a parked car with another man outside a Surrey residence.
Jatinder (Michael) Sandhu, 28, was shot in the head and another man identified as Sean Pasha was shot in the arm on July 23, 2016, as they talked inside a car parked in a driveway in the 14300 block of 90A Avenue.
RCMP at the time said Sandhu was an innocent man — someone who has no criminal record and no ties to gangs or the drug trade.
Kal Sandhu on Tuesday said she knows justice will take time and is hoping a Crime Stoppers update on the murder that was released in January helps the Integrated Homicide Investigative Team (IHIT) to collect information that will lead to an arrest and conviction.
She went public Tuesday hoping to get further attention for the unsolved crime.
“We are hoping that any clues people can give IHIT can help solve this crime,” Kal Sandhu said.
She said her son and Pasha were friends. Michael Sandhu was a hard-working bank employee specializing in mortgages who loved life and stayed away from trouble, she said.
“He was a good kid, not into gangs or drugs,” she said. “He was doing well.”
The grief-stricken mother thinks the shooting was a case of mistaken identity. “Michael was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
She is asking anyone with information on the murder to call the Integrated Homicide Investigative Team tip line at 1-877551-4448 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Innocent victims being caught in drug and gang violence is not new on the streets of Surrey.
In 2007, Christopher Mohan, 22, and Abbotsford gas-fitter Ed Shellenberg, 55, were two men shot dead in gang violence in a penthouse suite in Whalley’s Balmoral Tower.
Both had stumbled onto a gangland slaying in progress and were shot.
The homicide team and Surrey RCMP have said an ongoing gang war is fuelling the violence in the city. IHIT continues to look for a grey or silver Infiniti SUV that was seen leaving the crime scene in the Sandhu killing.