BEATING: Police scour surveillance tape to find culprits behind ‘senseless and reckless’ attack

KENT SPENCER
VANCOUVER DESI

Surrey security guard Hoshiar Singh Bajwa, 65, is now in stable condition after an unprovoked attack in Port Coquitlam by three men nearly killed him late Saturday night. Ian Lindsay/ PNG

Cpl. Jamie Chung, spokesman for Coquitlam RCMP, said Monday that detectives have been scouring surveillance cameras in the area after three men attacked 65-year-old Hoshiar Singh Bajwa.

Bajwa, who suffered severe cuts to his face from a horrific beating with metal rods, was guarding a construction site at Pitt River Community Middle School on Tyner St. at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday.

“He’s pretty stable, so that’s a good sign,” said Chung. “This was a senseless and reckless act.”

The police will investigate whether it was a targeted attack, racially motivated or a robbery gone wrong.

“Nothing appears to have been stolen. We’re not going to confine ourselves to one angle,” said Chung.

“It’s not appropriate to beat someone up at a job site just because he’s at work,” he said.

For more on this story, please visit our VancouverDesi.com site.

Bajwa told police one of his attackers was about 5-foot-7 and wore a white hoodie with a stripe.

“We’re waiting until [the victim] recovers before talking to him some more,” said Chung.

Karen English, manager of security training at the Justice Institute of B.C., said occupational risks are associated with security work, which is often performed by older employees who work alone and at night.

“It definitely has its dangers, but with good training, it can be done safely,” she said.

Thousands of people have been trained at the Justice Institute over the years for licensed positions as security guards.

Safety instruction includes body positioning and keeping a safe distance.

“We don’t want the subject to be standing right beside you,” she said. “The guards’ ultimate responsibility is to keep themselves safe. They are there to observe and report.”

Pay starts at $10.25 an hour.

WorkSafeBC spokeswoman Ally Skinner-Reynolds said a risk assessment will be discussed with Bajwa’s employer, Canuck Security.

“Precautionary measures are in place which employers are required to abide by,” she said. “WorkSafeBC is investigating.”

Anyone with information should contact CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Tags: Desi, Hoshiar Singh Bajwa, port coquitlam, security guard beating, Surrey, The Province, theprovince.com

Parhar says:

October 16, 2012 at 3:57 pm

We all know about those men who were hurt.

But don’t say “white people” like you mean “all white people”. If someone found out the percentage of white youths who don’t beat up elderly people, what would you say to that? Because the majority don’t do that.

I haven’t seen any records of attacks by brown kids on elderly (any race) persons. So that’s a good thing.

greg says:

October 17, 2012 at 12:25 pm

pete u r a moron a digrace to our community, stop commenting pls

jas says:

October 16, 2012 at 3:41 pm

bear creek 3 old sikh men beat killed in washroom 80+, surrey temple security guard beat killed by nazi, abby old man run over, the list goes on & on, i dont see the news wen a group pf brown kids beatan elderly white man? do you?>???? i know their not all bad but the ones that arent should be teaching their idiots how to use a brain. NO?

Pete says:

October 17, 2012 at 9:19 am

Jas,

19 of 33 murders in 2009 & 2010 involved Indo Canadians. Yet they make up only 21% of greater vancouver’s population. So why are 60% of murders committed by 21% of the population? So statistics say that there is much more violence perpetrated by your community. So much violence, the police created an Indo Canadian gang task force. Those are the facts.

So if we are speaking in generalizations here, I would look at the violence that is within your own community.

In terms of racism, you come from a culture that tolerates the killing of their own family in the name of honour. You have people in your community that view women as second class citizens and refuse to the let their daughters date white guys.

Parhar says:

October 17, 2012 at 11:58 am

Two things, Tinkerbell:

1) Jas here is referring to elderly folk beaten by the young uns. Your comment is invalid. But just for the fun of it, I’ll take your argument apart. I got a few min here at work…

2) You claim that 57% of the murders are committeed by 21% of the population. Can you back up your stats? No, you can’t. Cause you’re lying, boy.

A simple Google search reveals that in Vancouver alone, 83 murders were committed in 2010, with another 36 in the Greater Vancouver area (n=119, source – http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=01786f85-1436-4924-9617-5404a11bbbb4)

In 2009, 56 homicides were registered in the Metro Van area, 18 in Vancouver (n=74, source – http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/12/31/bc-metro-vancouver-homicides.html)

Not only do your “stats” lie, but nowhere was data located that indicated the number of Indo-Canadian killers.

That was fun.

Parhar says:

October 17, 2012 at 12:09 pm

Re: honor killing.

It happens in our community. And white folk, by and large, don’t do it.

I’m not sure if I would go with the “beating women is a brown thing” argument; SE Asians and Middle Eastern folk do not hold a patent on that kind of behavior. Caucasians do it too, and it may not be as rare as you want it to be.

Re: dating white folk: Indian folks do tend to avoid the interracial setup. It’s noteworthy to see the response when it does happen though. My wife is Chinese. I had 200 folks at my wedding from MY SIDE. If Indians are intolerant of interracial marriage, I guess those 200 were just outliers or anomalies.

Wrong.

You know, there are some (older) white folk that frown on the interracial folk getting together. But I’m too smart to generalize aginst them.

Parhar says:

October 16, 2012 at 3:14 pm

haray chop, jas! 3 goondas beating up this poor guy doesn’t mean that all white people are racist. Such nonsense. You know better.

jas says:

October 16, 2012 at 3:03 pm

white people, wen will ur racism around he world stop? christianity teachs this much hate?