Karen Kleiss (Edmonton Journal) – An RCMP officer accused of killing his wife is charged with first-degree murder, but the lawyer prosecuting the case says she will apply to amend the charge to second-degree.
Crown prosecutor Carrie Sharpe said Tirth Sehmbi was originally charged with first-degree murder, but that was a clerical error she is seeking to fix.
Dishevelled and confused, Sehmbi, 36, made his first appearance in an Edmonton courtroom Monday morning.
Tirth Sehmbi, 36, is charged with murdering his wife, Rajpinder Sehmbi.
Defence lawyer Mike Danyluik had the case adjourned until Aug. 12.
Sehmbi had been with the RCMP for nearly eight years and had been stationed in Grande Prairie and Evansburg before being transferred to Stony Plain, said Sgt. Tim Taniguchi, RCMP spokesman. “This is very difficult for the Stony Plain detachment,” he said Monday.
He was a dog handler and would have had the police dog with him at home, Taniguchi said.
Sehmbi has been suspended, with pay. The professional standards division will decide whether further action, such as suspending his pay, will be taken, Taniguchi said.
Laat Bhinder, a journalist for the Punjabi newspaper Ajit Jalandhar, said outside court that the community has been unable to locate any of Rajpinder Sehmbi’s family in the Edmonton area and has started searching for relatives in India.
“We sent news to India yesterday,” he said, adding a story about the killing appeared in today’s edition of Ajit Jalandhar. “Her family is in New Delhi.”
The city of Jalandhar, where the newspaper is published, is six hours north of New Delhi, but the paper is well read and he is hoping the article helps to locate them.
Sehmbi was arrested early Saturday morning after police found his wife’s body in their Jackson Heights home.
Numerous neighbours reported hearing the gunshots coming from the house, at 44 Jefferson Road, at about 4:20 a.m.
“I heard popping at night and I thought somebody was drunk and setting off Roman candles,” said Kendra Hunt, 29, who lives across the street.
“I went back to sleep and then my son sat up and said, ‘Mom, I think a dog got hit by a car,’ because we heard screeching of tires. We listened and I could hear squealing of the tires again and I just thought it was some kid coming home drunk or something … I told my son to go back to bed.”
At 5:30 a.m. police arrested Sehmbi at another location.
Little is known about Rajpinder Sehmbi, but a co-worker confirmed that she worked at a Starbucks in Mill Woods. Bhinder said she has also worked as a teaching assistant.
RCMP officials say the couple was married for about nine years. Neighbours say they often saw the constable and his two young sons outside but they never or rarely saw Sehmbi’s wife. The elementary-school boys regularly played outside with other kids in the community, neighbours said.
“I saw them playing lots. They were pretty happy,” said Hunt. “It’s pretty sad for the kids because they lost a mother and a father at the same time. It’s just really heartbreaking. It’s so close to home, too.”
Police say Sehmbi’s children are now in the care of family members. They don’t believe the two boys were home when their mother was killed.
Hunt said she spoke briefly to Sehmbi around 8 a.m. Friday, when he asked if she knew who owned a camper parked nearby.
Hunt said it belonged to a former roommate, and Sehmbi nodded and walked away.
Hunt said she didn’t talk to Sehmbi often, but said she and her 10-year-old son saw Sehmbi and his wife fighting in the past. Hunt’s backyard deck provides a direct view into Sehmbi’s garage across the street, where the officer parked his marked RCMP sport utility vehicle.
“He argued with his wife quite a bit. She would be throwing stuff and yelling at him so they kind of had a heated relationship,” said Hunt.
“The garage is usually open when he comes in and out, so when he would leave, she would be standing at the garage door to the house and he would be getting in the vehicle and she would be screaming and yelling at him.
“They speak a different language so I never understood what they were saying.”
Sehmbi worked out of the Stony Plain detachment as a traffic services member, patrolling the city and rural roads within detachment boundaries. He has worked in traffic for about three years.
“He will be suspended after a very quick process,” said RCMP assistant commissioner Peter Hourihan.
Initially the suspension will be with pay, followed by a review to consider further steps, including the stoppage of pay. Sehmbi was not on duty at the time of his wife’s death, Hourihan said Saturday.
ASIRT, a provincial body which investigates police-involved deaths or serious injuries, is leading the investigation into the murder.
Sehmbi, by all accounts, was a prominent member of his community.
For six or seven months starting last year he hosted a weekly show for newcomers on Radio Punjab in Edmonton. The station’s operator, Sukhdev Dhillon, said Sehmbi would tell listeners about the RCMP and the services they could use.
The constable left the station a few months ago.
Sehmbi and his family were also active in the Gurdwara Millwoods, a Sikh temple, Dhillon said.
Dhillon said the family always seemed happy when he would visit their home. “This is such a shock,” he said. “I can’t get over it.”
The president of Gurdwara Millwoods said Sunday Sehmbi’s parents regularly worshipped at the temple, but they stopped attending recently because Sehmbi’s father is seriously ill. “I recognize the constable, but I don’t recognize his wife … Once in a while, he used to come,” said Surinder Singh Hoonjan.
He said he hasn’t seen Sehmbi since April, when they were at the Alberta legislature for an event. “It’s very unfortunate (what happened), and we convey our condolences to the victim’s family.”
Alberta Hansard records show that Edmonton Manning Tory MLA Peter Sandhu introduced Sehmbi to the assembly along with four other police officers on April 14, to recognize the Sikh holiday of Vaisakhi.
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