Families remember victims in southeast Edmonton fatal shooting

Family members of two men killed in southeast Edmonton are reeling after what police believe was a targeted shooting.

Ranveer Singh, 18, and Gurdeep Singh, 27, died Dec. 12. Edmonton police say they responded to calls about gunshots near 32 Street and 26 Avenue in the Silverberry neighbourhood around 1:45 a.m. and found two men with gunshot wounds. First responders were unable to save them.

CityNews and sister station OMNI News have confirmed the victims’ identities. CityNews has spoken to family members of both victims.

The fatal shooting happened during a party, family members say.

Bobby Singh recalls his cousin Ranveer Singh fondly. The teen was studying at Niagara College in Toronto, where he lived.

“He was a very kind and gentle soul. He was intelligent, he had a very calm personality,” he told CityNews. “He had a one-of-a-kind personality in our whole family. Everybody had good things to say about him. He was completely vegetarian, never had meat, egg, alcohol, nothing in his life.”

Gurdeep Singh’s cousin, Saman, also remembers him as a nice and loving person.

“He was taking care of everyone, even someone who is younger or older. He was respectful to everyone,” Saman said.

The shooting happened while the pair were at the house in Silverberry for a party.

Ranveer Singh wasn’t initially planning to be there.

The 18-year-old was in Calgary applying for an American VISA, Bobby Singh said, but his application was rejected. He decided to stay and visit his longtime friends from India who now live in Calgary while he was there.

“That friend group that Ranveer knew from Calgary, they had another friend group that Ranveer did not know. He was not associated with the people in Edmonton,” Bobby Singh said. “They said, ‘Ranveer, you’re going to stay the night, let’s go to this party in Edmonton, then you’ll go back to Toronto the next day.’”

“We don’t know what happened at the party. We don’t know what was involved there.”

In the early hours of Friday morning, some partygoers wanted to get food.

“They were about to go to dinner, and my cousin [Ranveer Singh], he was the only one who did not drink, so he was asked to be the designated driver,” Bobby Singh said. “He was just sitting in the front seat of the vehicle, and there was a drive-by [shooting], pretty much.”

Saman said the event was a birthday party for one of her cousin Gurdeep Singh’s roommates.

She is asking people not to spread unverified rumours online.

“I have seen so much hate on social media. So we, as a family, [want to] just let people know, please try to find out the truth before saying something wrong [about] someone who is not here,” Saman said.

“He is dead. He cannot speak for himself.”

Neighbours who CityNews spoke to say they are shaken and afraid after violence broke out in the quiet neighbourhood.

Multiple neighbours said those who live in the home where the shooting occurred moved in recently.

Police have not said why the two men were killed or provided further details.

CityNews reached out to the Edmonton Police Service for more information, who responded saying they cannot answer questions, adding that more information is expected after the victims’ autopsies are completed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Police are looking for a dark-coloured SUV. Anyone who saw it in the area of the shooting, or anyone who has dashcam or security footage around Silverberry Road and 23 Avenue, as well as 34 Street and 29 Street, is asked to contact police.

Double homicides are rare in Edmonton. The most recent one was two years ago, when high-ranking gangster Harpreet Singh Uppal and his 11-year-old son were shot to death near a gas station in south Edmonton.

-With files from Samreen Khoja and Jarnail Basota