The owner of a South Edmonton barbershop is still reeling after one of his clients found a dead baby in a parking lot near his business on Saturday.
Harjas Dhaliwal, who runs Gz 2 Gentz Barbershop at a shopping complex near Ellerslie Road and Parsons Road S.W., arrived at work around 10 a.m. to find a box on the ground in the parking lot. At the time, he didn’t think much of it.
However, hours later, around 2 p.m., a client who had just left the shop spotted something alarming. The client saw a baby lying just a few centimeters from the box, next to his parked vehicle. Dhaliwal said there was no one else around at the time.
The client immediately returned to the barbershop to report what he had found. Dhaliwal said he was in disbelief at first.
“I thought maybe it was just a doll sitting there,” Dhaliwal recalled.
Without wasting time, Dhaliwal and the client called 911. Paramedics arrived shortly after. Police quickly cordoned off the area, asking nearby business workers to leave the scene.
The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) homicide unit is investigating the infant’s death, which authorities are treating as suspicious. In a statement released Saturday, police stated they don’t believe the death is connected to any nearby businesses.
Investigators are asking anyone with information or dash cam footage from the area between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday to come forward. Police have not responded to follow-up questions from CBC News regarding the case as of Monday.
On Tuesday, EPS spokesperson Carolin Maran confirmed that the department has received several helpful tips from the public. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday, and police plan to provide an update on the investigation later this week.
Dhaliwal said he still can’t make sense of what happened.
“It doesn’t feel real, still, to this day,” he said.
Related Topics:
