7.5 years for Edmonton man who fatally shot sister in drunken stupor

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Warning: This story deals with suicide. If you need help, the AHS Mental Health Help Line can be reached at 1-877-303-2642. The Canada Suicide Prevention Service can be contacted at 1-833-456-4566. The Suicide Crisis Helpline can be reached at 988. 

The young medical student heard a bang and the sound of breaking glass downstairs. She stepped out of the bathroom and saw her father rounding the corner of the hallway with a rifle.

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Terrified, she approached him. She screamed in his ear and struck him over and over, but he did not respond. She grabbed the rifle and, in the struggle, it fired. The bullet smashed into a door frame, sending wood and metal splinters flying.

The father finally let go of the gun and laid down in the nearby bedroom. When police arrived, he told them he had PTSD and wanted to kill himself.

His sister lay dead on the kitchen floor.

On Thursday, Jasbir Singh Grewal admitted those facts in an Edmonton courtroom, pleading guilty to manslaughter for the death of Kirandeep Kaur Grewal, who he shot in his northeast Edmonton home in 2022. She was 63.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Kent Teskey sentenced Grewal to 7 1/2 years in prison on a joint submission from Crown and defence, who said Grewal’s intoxication and mental illness raised doubts about his ability to form the intent for murder.

PTSD and drinking

Grewal was initially charged with second-degree murder. He was also charged with aggravated assault for injuring one of his three daughters, who was struck by the splintered door frame and required surgery.

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Grewal, a 58-year-old former truck driver, shot Kirandeep in the head on Aug. 6, 2022. He was off work on disability after a head-on collision in February 2020. Grewal suffered no major physical injuries but could not return to driving due to post-traumatic stress, defence lawyer Paul Moreau said. He was depressed and drinking heavily.

The day before the homicide, Grewal learned his accident benefits would no longer cover psychologist appointments, according to his lawyer and an agreed statement of facts. He drank and took prescription painkillers. When his 20-year-old daughter — the medical student — encountered him, she described him as “non-responsive” and his movements as “automatic.” Grewal’s two younger daughters, both aged 17, were also in the home at the time along with Grewal’s 90-year-old mother.

It was an “enormous shock” when Grewal found himself in the Edmonton Remand Centre, Moreau said. He was later assessed at Alberta Hospital. While he was found fit to stand trial and unable to rely on the not criminally responsible defence, the assessments nonetheless identified a “variety” of mental health issues, Moreau said.

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‘Something you’ll have to live with’

Teskey said the sentence proposed by Crown and defence adequately fit the crime and lined up with past sentences for similar offences.

“Two very experienced counsel have looked at the case and told me 7 1/2 years is appropriate,” he told court. “I have no trouble accepting that.”

Addressing Grewal, Teskey said: “This is something you’ll have to live with for the rest of your life.” 

Grewal was in custody at the time of Thursday’s hearing. With enhanced credit for time in remand — after receiving the standard credit of 1 1/2 days for every day in pretrial custody — he has 4 1/2 years left to serve.

Grewal did not discuss the crime during the hearing. No victim impact statements were given.

The rifle was a non-restricted SKS that Grewal owned legally. An illegal overcapacity magazine was also found in his possession.

jwakefield@postmedia.com

x.com/jonnywakefield

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