{"id":577099,"date":"2026-04-02T09:23:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/577099\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T09:23:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:23:23","slug":"2-charged-in-highway-shooting-that-killed-alberta-man-in-senseless-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/577099\/","title":{"rendered":"2 charged in highway shooting that killed Alberta man in \u2018senseless crime\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two people have now been charged in connection with a fatal highway shooting south of Edmonton earlier this month in what Alberta Police described as a \u201csenseless crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In a news conference Wednesday afternoon, RCMP<\/a> staff Sgt. John Brown said 22-year-old Barinder Singh was driving with two close friends on March 14 along the QEII Highway near Leduc when he was shot in the neck.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite being shot, Barinder and his two friends were able to safely stop the vehicle. He died shortly after,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

Police say that at around 2:50 p.m. on March 14, a witness saw a pickup truck pull up beside a black 2012 Honda Civic, owned by Singh.<\/p>\n

According to investigators, there was a brief interaction between those in the two vehicles before the shooting, including a hand gesture resembling a peace sign, which was held up at the victim\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

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The victims in the vehicle assumed it was a peace sign and Singh returned the gesture, according to his friends who were also in the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Moments later, shots were fired from the suspect vehicle, hitting Singh in the neck. The truck sped away at a high rate of speed.<\/p>\n

A friend who had been in the car with Singh, and who does not want to be identified due to safety concerns, told Global News he doesn\u2019t understand why anyone would do this. \u201cWe tried to put pressure on his wounds and call 911,\u201d the friend said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere was so much blood loss. I tried really hard but could not save him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPassengers recount harrowing QEII drive-by shooting that killed their friend\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

RCMP said both vehicles were travelling southbound side by side when the incident happened, and the groups had no prior connection.<\/p>\n

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Jimmy Gassner, 18, of Lloydminster, was arrested on March 21 in Canoe Lake, Sask., and charged with second-degree murder, according to police.<\/p>\n

Investigators allege Gassner was a passenger in the truck and fired the shots. Gassner was already known to police for other charges as a minor.<\/p>\n

A second suspect, 23-year-old Deon Libsekil, was arrested on March 26.<\/p>\n

Brown said Libsekil was also known to police and already in custody on unrelated matters. He has now been charged with second-degree murder and accessory after the fact.<\/p>\n

Libsekil has been remanded into custody and is scheduled to appear in court on April 2.<\/p>\n

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RCMP said they believe all suspects connected to the shooting have now been identified and charged.<\/p>\n

While a motive has not been fully confirmed, Brown said, \u201cit\u2019s partially random.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police say there is no evidence the shooting was motivated by hate or racial bias and confirmed the victim and his friends were not involved in criminal activity or gang affiliation. \u201cThe victims were fully random,\u201d Brown added.<\/p>\n

RCMP also ruled out robbery, road rage and gang initiation as motives, though investigators say there may be some connection to gang activity among the suspects.<\/p>\n

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RCMP say Singh\u2019s family is currently outside Canada, and officers have been in contact with them.<\/p>\n

Investigators are also reassuring members of the Sikh community that the killing was not targeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not racially motivated \u2026 this is not a pattern, it is a one-off event,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPassengers recount harrowing QEII drive-by shooting that killed their friend\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Brown added that these types of \u201crandom, senseless attacks\u201d are very rare and thanked all detachments for their hard work in a successful investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigation team did an amazing job,\u201d he said after explaining random incidents like this are usually the most difficult type of case to piece together.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With files from Global News\u2019 Karen Bartko<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two people have now been charged in connection with a fatal highway shooting south of Edmonton earlier this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,2169,57011,216929,44,920],"class_list":{"0":"post-577099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-fatal-shooting","12":"tag-major-crimes-unit","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-rcmp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}