Harsimrat Randhawa came to Canada two years ago in search of a better life, her family said, but it was cut short by a stray bullet in Hamilton.
The 21-year-old from India, who studied at Mohawk College, was shot dead while waiting for a bus last week. Police said she was an innocent bystander when shots were fired from a vehicle.
Her cousin Balraj Singh said Randhawa wanted to open her own physiotherapy clinic after graduating from college, but her dreams will never come true.
Singh said Randhawa's parents in India are devastated.
“They will not be able to come here because they are in very bad condition now,” Singh said in an interview from Brampton, Ont., on Monday.
“They are not even able to eat and sleep.”
Hamilton police have said that Randhawa was shot in the chest when the occupants of one vehicle shot at another while she was waiting at a bus stop Thursday evening. She died later that night in the hospital.
The next morning, Singh said police contacted a relative whose address was listed on Randhawa’s driver's licence. That relative then contacted her parents back home, he said.
“It was very disturbing,” Singh said of the call.
The shooting happened in the area of Upper James Street and South Bend Road and police say bullets also flew through a window of a nearby home, but no one inside was injured.
Police said Randhawa was on her way to work when she was shot. She worked at a local McDonald’s, usually on weekends, Singh said.
He described Randhawa as a quiet and introverted person who was “brilliant” in her studies.
"She was absolutely happy in Canada,” he said, adding that her relatives here are also "feeling absolutely terrible."
Randhawa’s death triggered an outpouring of grief and sympathy from local officials, Mohawk College and members of the Indian community across Canada. Dozens of people attended a vigil in her honour outside Hamilton City Hall on Sunday afternoon.
Chintan Darji, a Mohawk College graduate who organized the event, said he was “heartbroken” by her death and worried about rising crime and gun violence in Hamilton.
As the investigation into the shooting continues, police are asking anyone with information to come forward.
Randhawa’s family in India's Punjab state will receive her body this week, Singh said.
“Tomorrow we're going to see her (one) last time and then we will finish the paperwork to send the body back home."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2025.
Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press
