Peel police haven't confirmed that 19-year-old Nitish Khanna was beaten to death in Malton early Monday. But a witness and friend of the deceased Toronto teen told CityNews he was lured outside and ambushed by several men, who bludgeoned him with golf clubs.

The ruthless killing apparently stemmed from a very minor altercation.

Khanna was having a late meal with two friends at the Tasty Bite Restaurant on Torbram Road when he exchanged words with a group of strangers in the bathroom, the witness revealed.

"It seemed like everything was resolved...and one of the guys comes back to us and he tried to trick us, he told us that we are from the same country we shouldn't fight and all that," the man, who didn't want to be identified, explained.

Khanna, who has never been in trouble with the law, believed he was stepping outside to engage in a mutual apology for the previous incident.  Instead he was attacked. 

His two friends managed to flee, but Khanna was cornered.

"And as soon as we got out they were standing there with the golf clubs," the friend added.

"They kept attacking him with the golf clubs repeatedly."  

Police were called to the restaurant parking lot just after 2 a.m. and found Khanna with "obvious signs of trauma."

He was declared dead at the scene after paramedics failed to revive him.

Although police wouldn't confirm Khanna died from a beating, they did mark as evidence two broken golf clubs and some rocks.

“He’s a good person,” his only sister Heena Sharma said. “Always helping me. Good boy.”

Raman Hallan, who has a body shop behind Tasty Bite, said the restaurant opened around 4 p.m. every day and served Indian Tandoori food throughout the evening.

“It’s not really a family restaurant,” Hallan told CityNews. “(It’s) people who work at night, like cab drivers, maybe people coming back late from work.”

Officers say they are looking for five males seen driving away in a light-coloured, four-dour sedan.

In the meantime police are appealing to the public for help and are in the process of reviewing surveillance video from surrounding businesses.

"Anyone who may have seen or heard anything or were at the scene, please call homicide investigators no matter how small the piece of information they may think they have," advised  PC Thomas Ruttan.

With files from Pam Seatle

• Anyone who may have information with respect to this incident is asked to call investigators in the Homicide Bureau at (905) 453-2121, ext. 3205. Anonymous tips can also be left with Peel Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), or through their website, www.peelcrimestoppers.ca.