Toronto police have released security camera images of a vehicle wanted in connection with a targeted shooting in the Yonge and Eglinton area that left one man dead.
At a press conference at Toronto police’s 53 division, Homicide Det. Sgt. Joyce Schertzer said a vehicle was seen arriving and then fleeing the scene after 35-year-old Sukhvir Deo was shot to death on Tuesday.
The vehicle is a black Honda Civic model made between 2000 and 2005 and is believed to be fitted with distinctive rims.
Deo was sitting in the driver’s seat of a white Range Rover in the laneway of a building on Yonge Street and Soudan Avenue at around 3 p.m. when he was shot several times through the window of the vehicle. Police said Deo likely intended to visit or socialize in the area at the time of the shooting.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Schertzer confirmed at the conference that it was “absolutely a targeted shooting.”
A police source told CTV Toronto that Deo had recently moved to Toronto from Vancouver in order to start a trucking company but was also believed to be involved with dealing drugs and other criminal activity.
Schertzer said that Deo was known to police but had no prior contact with the Toronto police service specifically.
“We have no investigations, no history with him. He is new to us. Any information we have received -- you’ve mentioned Vancouver -- is the same type of information we’re starting to gather,” she said, alluding to reports in Vancouver of Deo’s ties to crime and gangs.
According to public records, Deo was previously found guilty of five difference offences in B.C..
The convictions concerned several vehicle-related offences, as well as an assault charge from 2002 and a charge for resisting or obstructing a peace officer from 2011.
On Wednesday, a police source described Deo to CTV News Toronto as “an animal.”
Police are looking for two black males who were seen fleeing the area – one was wearing a green construction vest and the other was wearing an orange construction vest.
Schertzer said she did not believe the suspects were construction workers.
“We have downloaded hours and hours of video and accessed a number of different CCTV cameras in the area and we’re still analyzing,” Schertzer said. “We are aware residents and citizens may have captured images or video of the incident. A website is available to those individuals to download the images to investigators directly and the option to remain anonymous exists.”
Schertzer emphasized that it is very early in the investigation but said that police wanted to release the information about the vehicle while it was ‘still fresh in the minds of potential witnesses.’
“I can tell you that any shooting is shocking -- not to marginalize the impact or the grieving of the family or friends of this individual -- but any shooting makes a victim of the community,” she said.
Schertzer also read a letter sent via email by the victim’s family to Toronto police service which also urged potential witnesses to come forward.
“There have been many things written and said about Sukh (Sukhvir) alleging all manner of things that are not true. To his family he was a loving son, a loving brother, and a loving husband and father of two very young children. His family is shattered by his death,” the letter, read by Schertzer, said.
“The family wants whoever is responsible for this to be brought to justice and asks anyone with information to contact police.”
Deo was recently seen on TV at Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals where, in the fourth quarter, he was ejected from the game for heckling a referee.
Records show Deo lived in a luxury home located in Oakville with his wife and two young children. In 2014, tactical officers raided the residence and seized luxury cars, according to a police source.
Deo was also expected to go to trial sometime next year in Vancouver for drug trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime.
