A heavy police presence was on scene earlier today in downtown Abbotsford for “public safety reasons” related to a funeral, according to Abbotsford Police spokesman Const. Ian MacDonald.
The funeral took place at the Fraser River Funeral Home on Riverside Road and resulted in police monitoring the scene from the rooftop of the nearby Greyhound bus depot, as well as from the air and ground.
MacDonald would not confirm whose funeral it was, but sources indicate it was for one of the two men killed last week during a targeted shooting in Edmonton.
Navdeep Sidhu, 24, and Harman Mangat, 22, were found dead in a pickup truck in a southeast Edmonton neighbourhood on Wednesday, Jan. 11.
They both died of multiple gunshot wounds, and police referred to their deaths as “drug-related murders.”
Abbotsford Police Sgt. Judy Bird confirmed at that time that the two men had been tied to the Townline Hill conflict, involving two groups of men battling for drug turf, although she didn’t know when they had last been connected to the dispute.
She also indicated that Sidhu previously lived in Abbotsford.
MacDonald said police took an “abundance of caution” in having such a large police presence monitoring the funeral.
He said members of the Abbotsford Police emergency response team, the K9 unit, and patrol and traffic sections were assisted by the the Air One police helicopter and the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit’s gang task force.