Shots fired at Redstone house likely linked to extortion shootings: Calgary police

Gunfire ripped through a family's northeast Calgary home. Police say the attack was targeted and is believed to be part of wider extortion.

A Calgary homeowner says his family is still terrified after their house in the community of Redstone was shot on Saturday, an attack police now believe is part of a broader extortion series including 11 shootings across the city since 2025.

Veer Davinder, a former Punjabi singer and local construction trades businessman, says he began receiving threatening calls demanding $500,000 on Jan. 6.

He says the callers warned his home would be targeted if he did not pay.

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“I told them that I don’t have this kind of money because I’m a small business owner; I just do my job to survive and feed my family,” Davinder said to CTV News through a translator.

Calgary police say multiple rounds were fired into Davinder’s home in the 100 block of Redstone Common N.E. around 10:30 p.m.

Surveillance footage obtained by CTV News shows one masked man firing at least seven shots into the home, while another person walks behind him.

No one was inside the home at the time, and no injuries were reported.

Homeowner says warnings weren’t ‘entertained’ by police

Davinder says he contacted police immediately after receiving the first threat, but felt his concerns were dismissed.

“When I first got the call, I went to police directly, but police didn’t entertain my concern,” he said. “They said it’s better to call and report this to the CPS non-emergency number, so that’s what I did.”

Davinder estimates he received between eight and 10 calls before the shooting happened.

“I kept vigorously telling them that I was keep getting the calls – and that maybe within one or two hours we could have someone shoot at our house, so please do something if you can as soon as possible – but they didn’t entertain me.”

Fearing violence, Davinder says his family left the home shortly after the initial threat.

“We didn’t want to be at home, because anything can happen.”

He says police later contacted him to inform him the house had been shot.

Davinder says the calls appeared to originate from outside Canada and were made through WhatsApp.

“The phone numbers, I really didn’t recognize them. It wasn’t a local number, it was some strange number from Europe or from the internet that were using a fake number to call me.”

He says he has no idea why he was targeted.

“I honestly don’t understand why this is happening,” Davinder said.

“I don’t have any kind of history of bad behavior or bad relationships – even back in the days when I used to be a very popular singer.”

He added he has lived in Calgary for six or seven years and is no longer a public figure.

“I’m not by any means an overly successful businessman, nor am I a popular singer anymore, so why did this happen to me?”

“I’m still scared, but I just wants to appeal to all the gangsters or people who are making these calls that I just request you guys to stay out of this thing, because we don’t have this kind of money, and nobody has.”

‘It’s very serious’

Supt. Jeff Bell says the Calgary Police Service treats extortion as a serious violent offence.

When pressed on Davinder’s frustration with how police responded to his concerns, Bell acknowledged that victims may feel police don’t act quickly enough.

“Obviously, this is very significant for that person, and we take this very seriously,” he said. “These are threats of violence to members of Calgary, so we want to make sure that they understand that we’re putting all of the available resources towards these investigations.”

Bell says police ask victims to report threats immediately so that details can be recorded and further investigations can commence to prevent future incidents.

“We’re asking for information from the public as soon as they get that information, because we’re better able to safety plan with them and provide a response from the police to ensure public safety.”

Redstone and Taradale shootings linked to extortion: police

The Redstone shooting comes days after a Taradale home in the 0–100 block of Tarawood Lane N.E. was shot at twice — once Tuesday night and again Thursday around 10 p.m.

No injuries were reported, and the residence was unoccupied during the second incident.

“Since 2025, police have been investigating a series of extortion shootings in Calgary,” Bell said.

“We’ve had 13 extortions in the surrounding communities and in that time, that includes a total of 11 shootings in Calgary proper.”

Bell says police believe the Redstone and Taradale shootings fall under that same series.

“We’re still in the infancy stages of the investigation for those two, but they’ve been put forward under the extortion series, which is now being led by our partners with Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT).”

Bell says the incidents are not confined to one part of the city, though police are seeing a troubling trend with calls being targeted towards the South Asian community.

He says working on the case with ALERT allows for better enforcements.

“It includes better intelligence and more of a combined approach,” he added.

Police say there are similarities in how the victims were contacted.

“The phone numbers are coming either through WhatsApp or an international call,” Bell said.

Another trend noticed by investigators is callers mentioning their affiliation with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

“What we’re really encouraging is for people to please not give any money,” Bell said. “We almost perpetuate the issue by continuing to give money, because if there’s no money to be given, the problem can’t exist.”