On May 23, a Toronto Raptors fan named Sukh Deo was ejected from his courtside seat at Air Canada Center for heckling the officials during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
On Tuesday afternoon, the 34-year-old Deo was found shot dead inside his sport-utility vehicle in an alley near the busy intersection of Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue in Midtown Toronto. The white Range Rover had at least 14 bullet holes visible in the driver’s side window, according to the Toronto Sun.
Deo had moved to Toronto from British Columbia a few years ago and was running a trucking company with a friend, his uncle told the Sun. But police in British Columbia say he was the subject of at least one continuing investigation there and had previous convictions for resisting a police officer, driving with a suspended license and assault. Deo’s father, Parminder, also is wanted on an Interpol warrant for drug-smuggling charges in India, the Sun reports, and his brother, Harjit, was convicted in a 2005 gang kidnapping.
Sukh Deo’s uncle described his nephew as an avid Raptors fan and said the family was watching when he was ejected from the playoff game.
“All our kids, they watched him on that day,” Sohan Deo told the Sun. “He was a really big fan of that team. He always goes to watch the games.”
Police in Toronto are looking for two men who were seen fleeing the scene of the slaying in a black car, both of them wearing construction vests.
