A 37-year-old man from Karnataka was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the parking lot of a busy shopping centre in Toronto on February 7. The Canadian police identified him the next day. The Karnataka government is making arrangements to bring his body back to his family.
The Toronto Police Service said the incident occurred at around 3.31 pm on February 7 in the parking lot of Woodbine Shopping Centre, located at the Rexdale Boulevard–Highway 27 junction. Police found a man with gunshot wounds. He was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries but later succumbed to them.
Chandan Kumar was originally from Tyamagondlu village in Nelamangala taluk of Bengaluru Rural district. An Information Technology professional, he had been living in Canada for the past seven to nine years and was employed with LTIMindtree. He was the only son of retired teacher Nandakumar and Shailaja, residents of Tyamagondlu.
In a statement issued on February 8, said that the suspect or suspects fled the scene in a vehicle, and the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain unclear. However, investigators believe the incident was “targeted”.
According to police and media reports, images from the scene showed a white SUV with bullet holes in the windshield and a shattered driver-side window. CTV News reported that the vehicle appeared to have been fired upon multiple times.
The Toronto Star quoted Dhanush Manivannan, who works at a shop close to where the shooting happened as saying that nobody noticed anything until they saw the police arrive.
“The mall was pretty busy at that time; there were a lot of people around, but none of us heard anything. We did not know this was a crime scene until they started taping the doors off,” he said.
Apart from his professional work, Chandan Kumar was actively involved in the Kannada community in Canada. He worked with the Toronto Kannada Sangha and the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple Trust, and had played a key role in organising cultural programmes, including events featuring well-known singers and artists from Karnataka.
The family was informed of the killing late on Sunday night, February 8, through an international phone call from Canadian authorities. Recounting the moment, Chandan’s mother Shailaja said the first call went unanswered as her husband was afraid to pick it up. “When another international call came, I answered it and we were informed that our son had been shot,” she told Deccan Herald.
His cousin, Raghavendra AS, said the family has sought government assistance to bring Chandan Kumar’s body back to India. He added that the local tahsildar visited the family on Monday to collect details and initiate the necessary formalities.
Reacting to the incident, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said on X that the killing was “deeply painful”. He said the state police department had reached out to the Union Ministry of External Affairs to make arrangements to repatriate Chandan’s body.
“I have instructed officials to provide all assistance to the grieving family,” he said, while urging Canadian authorities to conduct a proper investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Parameshwara also sought to reassure Kannadigas living in Canada, stating that the Karnataka government remained committed to their safety.