RCMP said Tuesday evening they have not yet identified any suspects, or what their motives might have been during a fatal home invasion in Burnaby, B.C., that led to the death of a 41-year-old Surrey school principal.

Shemina Hirji, who was principal at A.H.P. Matthew Elementary School in Surrey, B.C., was killed during a home invasion.
(CBC)

While investigating Shemina Hirji's death, police executed a second warrant in the morning to gather "additional information that we didn't gather the first time we were in the home," Cpl. Dale Carr said.

When asked about Hirji's husband, Paul Cheema, who was injured during the July 5 home invasion, Carr said he's not a suspect and "he has been co-operating with police."

"We haven't really ID'd who the suspects are to make some sort of assertion as to what their motive was to determine whether it was random or targeted," he said.

Cheema had told police three men entered the Sierra Ridge townhouse and attacked the couple. Cheema was released from hospital later the same day with minor injuries.

Last respects

Mourning men leave the outdoor tent where the funeral for Shemina Hirji was held Tuesday in Burnaby, B.C.
(CBC)

On Tuesday afternoon, more than 2,000 family, friends, colleagues and members of the Ismaili community in the Lower Mainland paid their last respects at Hirji's funeral.

During the simple hour-long ceremony in a large white tent outside the Ismaili centre in Burnaby where Hirji used to volunteer, mourners sang Salwaat — an Ismaili prayer for the soul — as everyone took turns to pass by the coffin.

Men from the Lower Mainland's Ismaili community pass the casket hand-over-hand toward the hearse after Tuesday's funeral.
(CBC)

The body of Hirji, clothed in white, lay in an open casket, with flowers and a card from a child resting on top of her.

There were no speeches. After the ceremony, according to Ismaili tradition, men carried the coffin out to the hearse while the women remained inside.

Hirji was the principal of A.H.P. Matthew Elementary School. The couple had been married less than a week.