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Indo-Canadian teenager killed in Ontario's racial brawl
Pritpaul Singh Dhanoa was severely injured when two teenager groups clashed in a planned fight in Woodbridge.
An Indo-Canadian teenager was killed in an inter-race clash in an Italian-dominated suburb of this largest Canadian city and provincial capital of Ontario.
Pritpaul Singh Dhanoa, 17, was severely injured when two teenager groups clashed in a pre-planned fight in Woodbridge, on Highway 7 and Pine Valley area. The deceased was part of one of the groups, the South Asian Observer reported.
Dhanoa, an honour student of Class 12, died in hospital early Saturday from severe head injuries.
The clash was said to be a culmination of a simmering dispute that began some months back and was trigged by a racial slur. However, police denied that the incident was racially motivated.
Police said that Dhanoa was fatally injured when he and other masked youth, armed with weapons, chased the other group. The police claim that Dhanoa fell from a moving car and struck his head on a Kerb, the report said.
They rejected the assumption that the Indo-Canadian youth was beaten to death. Some earlier reports suggested that Dhanoa was repeatedly kicked in the head and thrashed with sticks by assailants.
The police even went to the extent of claiming the Dhanoa was among a group of South Asian youths who armed themselves with sticks, bats and pipes, pulled on ski masks and tried to attack a group of teenagers of Italian origin near a park, the newspaper said.
According to the police, when the second group fled to avoid a clash, the first group jumped into cars and chased them in the Pine Valley-Highway 7 area. Apparently, it was here that Dhanoa fell from a car and struck his head.
However, parents and relatives of the deceased refused to give any information about the incident. Dhanoa was an only child.
