SURREY — A man accused of assaulting a family member is now charged with manslaughter after the 32-year-old victim died in hospital.
The accused is Mandeep Bhatti, 29, said Staff Sergeant Jennifer Pound, of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. She did not reveal the name of the victim, or his precise relationship to the accused.
"We are not releasing the identity of the victim or the relationship between the two," she told the Now.
The Surrey RCMP had responded to a complaint of an assault May 2nd in a residence in the 6700-block of 152nd Street in Newton following an argument between two "family members" there, she said.
The victim was taken to hospital suffering from a skull fracture requiring emergency surgery, was treated, and released seven days later, on May 9th.
Three days later, Pound said, the victim "was readmitted to the hospital with a life-threatening brain bleed."
He died in hospital on May 15.
Two days prior to that, Bhatti had been charged with aggravated assault. On May 16, the charge was upgraded to manslaughter.
tom.zytaruk@thenownewspaper