Truro police arrest, then release, man over weekend killing

A man was arrested and then released after the weekend killing of a man in Truro, N.S., the town's police chief said Tuesday.

Chief David MacNeil of the Truro Police Service said a 911 call from 494 Robie St. at 2 a.m. Sunday brought officers to the apartment building, where they found a man with life-threatening injuries.

MacNeil confirmed the victim was Prabhjot Singh Katri, 23, who later died of his injuries.

"We executed several search warrants on the weekend and we did have a person of interest that was arrested shortly after. However, they have since been released from our custody without charges related to this homicide at this time," MacNeil said.

That man remains a person of interest, he said.

MacNeil said he met with the victim's family, friends, and members of the local Indian-Canadian community Sunday night to express his condolences.Singh came to Canada from India in 2017 to study.

"Mr. Singh was a hard-working young man with a bright future and this is an absolutely senseless loss of life," MacNeil said. "The community is outraged by this."

Friends of Singh's have worried the attack was a racially motivated hate crime.

"Contrary to social media, we have no information on motive that we're releasing at this point in time," MacNeil said.

"We don't believe there is any ongoing threat to the public," he added, without offering the reasons behind that assessment.

He wouldn't say if police think the attack wasrandom, or that the attacker targeted Singh. MacNeil said the investigation was ongoing. The crime scene at the apartment building has been released.

Singh helped mother in India

Singh worked for Layton's taxi as well asone or two restaurants in Truro.

"Prabhjot was a very kind, hard-working gentleman," saidDarlene MacDonald, his boss at Layton's. "He'd make you laugh, even if you were in a crappy mood. He knew how to make you feel happy."

She said his father had died a few years ago and Singh sent money home to help his mother in India.

"It's going to be tragic when he goes home by coffin," she said.

She hopes the fundraiser to get his body back to India will also help his mother.