The killing of a man in an office complex in Surrey has opened up a tangle of questions about who he was and how he was able to operate as he did. The shooting happened on May 4, in broad daylight, around three o'clock in the afternoon. Two gunmen casually walked into the building, went up to a second-floor office, and shot and killed a man who was working there, before slipping away with little immediately released about who they were.
It was only later that the victim was identified. His name is Gurvikramjit Singh Waring, though he was known by several aliases, including Sam and Sam Canada. Even obtaining a photograph of him proved difficult, as for some time he had been only a shadowy figure, a mysterious presence referred to simply as Sam, whose death has unsettled the community around him.
The official account and the community's account do not fully line up. Police have said the man was not known to them and was not facing any extortion threats at the time of his death. Yet people in the community say a very different picture had been forming, describing a man who, according to them, had allegedly been making threats against others as part of the Bishnoi gang.
That gang reference carries weight, because the Bishnoi network is regarded as a large and far-reaching organised criminal entity, one whose scale belies how easily its name can be underestimated. Within it, the slain man is described as having been a significant figure, someone who appeared to be operating relatively freely despite the seriousness of the allegations attached to him.
His name had also surfaced in a separate line of inquiry. The figure known as Sam had been lurking in the background of an investigation into cricket corruption, which is how attention first came to him before his killing brought his identity into sharper focus. His business dealings only deepened the mystery, with an apparent operation tied to obtaining student loans from the provincial government, though no businesses doing that could be found registered in his name.
Another of his ventures later unravelled under scrutiny. He had run an operation that brought in temporary foreign workers over a number of years, registered as a farm business. During inspections, the government found that the farm did not actually exist and that the work he claimed to be doing was not being carried out. The business was fined and subsequently shut down, leaving behind further questions about how it had functioned for so long.
The man's own path to Canada is part of the story. He himself came to the country in 2013 as a foreign worker. Years later, in 2023, one of his aliases surfaced on a list published by the Indian government naming alleged Punjabi gangsters abroad, a list that pointed to seven such figures said to be hiding in Canada, with him among them. For some in the community, a radio host and former member of Parliament and provincial legislature, Ginny Sims, framed the central question bluntly: why was he able to get into the country if he was already wanted elsewhere, and once that information was available, why was he not tracked down.
Those questions remain, for now, unanswered. When approached about whether the man had been on their radar, or whether India had ever sought his extradition, the RCMP and federal authorities did not provide a definitive response, saying they could not comment. The result is a case in which a man apparently high in a criminal organisation lived and worked openly in Canada, leaving a community shaken and searching for accountability.