The victim of Tuesday’s daylight slaying near Yonge and Eglinton was an alleged cocaine dealer in the GTA with gangland connections in British Columbia.

Sohan Deo confirmed that his nephew Sukh Deo, 34, was shot repeatedly in an alley on Tuesday as 18 bullets shattered the window of the parked Range Rover where he sat.

Toronto police had charged him in October 2013 with cocaine trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime, and he was seven months away from a trial in Ontario Superior Court, court records show.

“It’s very bad news. It’s very bad for the family,” said Sohan, who learned from another of his nephews that Sukh was the man gunned down.

Sohan, speaking from Vancouver, said his nephew had moved to Toronto from Vancouver about five years ago and was running a trucking company here.

Sukh’s lawyer, Michael Lacy, said he had “intended to plead not guilty” to the allegations.







Some members of Sukh’s family appear to have gangland connections in B.C. Sukh himself has had convictions for assault, resisting a police officer and driving while suspended, all in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, between 2004 and 2012.

In May 2005, Sukh’s younger brother Harjit Deo and at least two other men used his parents’ garage as a hideout after kidnapping a man they blamed for a missing shipment of marijuana, a B.C. Supreme Court judge found. The crew, associated with the Independent Soldiers gang, had exchanged the hostage for ransom money in a movie theatre parking lot, under police surveillance, southeast of Vancouver.

“During his confinement, (the victim) was variously bound, blindfolded, beaten, held at gunpoint and threatened,” wrote Justice Arne Silverman in 2007.

Sukh’s father, Parminder Deo, in his early 60s, is wanted by authorities in India on an Interpol warrant for drug smuggling.

Sukh’s uncle confirmed his nephew’s family connection to Harjit and Parminder.

Just weeks before his death, Sukh had an unlikely moment in the spotlight. Hundreds of thousands of basketball fans watched him get ejected, on camera, for heckling referees at the Raptors’ May 23 playoff game in Toronto against the Cleveland Cavaliers, said Gurpreet Sahota, editor of the Punjabi weekly newspapers Akal Guardian and Charhdi Kala in Surrey, B.C.

An amped-up Sukh, dressed in a dark top and blue jeans, can be seen leaving his courtside seat at the Air Canada Centre, gesticulating in protest as officials point the way out during the fourth quarter of the tension-fraught match.

Tuesday’s shooting occurred just before 3 p.m. on Cowbell Lane, an alleyway behind the Minto Towers just south of the Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. E. intersection.

Officers at the scene said the shooting came as a “big surprise.”

“This is a very quiet neighbourhood and not indicative of crime,” said Supt. Reuben Stroble of 53 Division.

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“We are doing everything in our power … increasing patrols, increasing visibility in the area.”

Toronto police have not confirmed Sukh’s identity.

No suspects have been arrested, but two men were seen fleeing the scene in a black car. One was wearing an orange construction vest, the other a green vest.

“It’s scary because me and my mom walk through there all the time,” said area resident Murtaza Shah. “What if those idiots had missed him and hit me or my mom? It takes me two seconds to get here.”