A 19-year-old British Columbia student was shot Sept. 28 in a university parking lot, according to CTV.

Maple Batalia, a nursing student at Simon Fraser University (SFU)’s Surrey campus, died in hospital shortly after.

Batalia’s ex-boyfriend, Gurjinder (Gary) Dhaliwal, turned himself in for two seperate assaults but has not been directly charged for Batalia’s murder, according to the Vancouver Sun.

Batalia was a model and an actress who had earned a small role in the movie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

She had also recently filmed a part in a television series that has not yet aired, according to The Globe and Mail.

Peter Thiessen, spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, told The Globe and Mail he doesn’t believe the shooting was related to gang or drug activity.

“She was an outstanding student, a pillar in her community. She was a beautiful young lady in the prime of her life and this is not a result of any questionable lifestyle on her part,” Thiessen said.

Harkirat Batalia, the young woman’s father, told CTV British Columbia he will only wear black until an arrest has been made.

“I won’t wear any other colour for the rest of my life until I get justice,” he said.

Batalia’s father has suggested that police interview Dhaliwal, according to CTV.

“We are certainly looking at that, very actively, very aggressively,” Thiessen told CTV, “but we are also looking into other areas as well.”

SFU spokesperson Don MacLachlan told The Globe that Batalia’s death has been difficult for many SFU students to handle.

“There’s a lot of long faces and subdued silence. They’re still in shock,” he said.

When questioned about the university’s security measures, MacLachlan said it was impossible for the shooting to be anticipated.
“I think it’s pretty safe to say that if a security guard had been in the parking area during the shooting, we’d have had two victims, not just one,” he told The Globe.

“She touched so many people . . . We [want to] prevent things like this from ever happening again,” Batalia’s friend, Michelle Cyr, told the CBC.
The Facebook page, “RIP Maple Batalia” has over 10,000 likes. Friends and strangers have written hundreds of messages honouring Batalia’s memory on the page.

The search for Batalia’s killer continues and police are currently inquiring about obtaining a video of the incident, Thiessen told The Globe.

“There are officers on this investigation, me included, we have daughters. So that certainly motivates us as police officers even more and takes it to a whole other level to imagine what this family must be experiencing,” he said.

“Nobody should have to experience this.”