Parents of corrections officer killed in Delta mourn son, hope for justice

DELTA (NEWS 1130) — The parents of corrections officer Bikram Randawa, who was gunned down in broad daylight outside a Delta mall, have arrived in Canada for their son’s funeral.

Speaking for the first time to OMNI Punjabi, Kuvuljeet and her husband Tharbajan Randhawa described the shock and heartbreak they felt after learning of their 29-year-old son’s death.

After hearing the news from another family member, they say they still could not believe it. But when they called their son and he didn’t answer, they realized he was gone.

“Our relatives came to our house, it was a Sunday. They came over and told us. I called my other son and he tried to explain what happened, I just couldn’t believe it. My heart was in pain. We were mourning, our entire community was mourning,” Tharbajan says.

More than a month after their son was shot to death in broad daylight, the parents of corrections officer Bikram Randhawa have come to Canada for his funeral. Speaking to @OMNIpunjabi, they say they're in shock over his murder and hope his killers will be found @NEWS1130 pic.twitter.com/l1O9C5lMyA

— Tarnjit Kaur Parmar (@Tarnjitkparmar) June 8, 2021

They say they’d sent Bikram to Canada when he was a child and were proud he had the opportunity to pursue his passions which included a career in law enforcement.

“We sent him to Canada for a better future, we thought there was a better chance for him to create a good future,” Kuvuljeet says, adding he visited them often but was always eager to get back to his life in B.C.

“When he came here, it was for a short amount of time. He would get bored, he wanted to go back to Canada, to go to work.”

Tharbajan says they missed their son, but felt like the sacrifice of sending him to Canada was worth it because he was building a good life, and because he had a solid foundation with his family. When he was killed he was working as a corrections officer at the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre, and he had hopes of becoming an officer with the RCMP.

“We lived without them, sent them away for a better chance of life. It was hard. It was difficult. He was a good person, he had friends, people from all over have reached out about him,” he says.

“We told him since he was a kid, do the right thing. I always told him don’t do anything bad, stay with good people. Make good friends, work hard and study hard. We never asked them for anything, we just asked them to be good people.”

Police have previously said the brazen killing outside of Scottsdale centre on May 1 had all the markings of a targeted gang hit. However, they aren’t rulling out that it was a case of mistaken identity, or that the Bikram was killed because of his profession. No arrests have been made.

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The Randhawa’s say they can’t imagine their son being involved in gangs or any other kind of illicit activity.

“We have no fear, he swore to do his duty. We never got any bad feeling about him. He wanted to advance in his career, he would never do anything wrong. He only ever worked hard, he was focused on his work and his school. He only ever had good intentions. He was our son,” he says.

The family had a small funeral for Bikram last Thursday, and now they are hopeful that an arrest will be made so they can have some closure.

“We worked all our lives and now we are here. We just wonder how this happened, we know it was mistaken identity. We believe the police will find those responsible, that those people who did this will be found.”

Editor’s note: The Randhawa’s spoke Punjabi during their interview with OMNI News. The quotes in this story have been translated into English. 

With files from Prabhjot Kahlon