They all lived in the same building. Five people were killed and another injured Sunday night in a shooting in Canada. The suspect, Francesco Villi, 73, also died after being shot dead by law enforcement. He resided in the building located in Vaughan, a town located about thirty kilometers north of Toronto, Ontario.
Three men and two women died, local police chief Jim MacSween told reporters on Monday, who are now trying to identify the motive for the killings. “All the victims resided in the building,” he said, adding that three of them were part of the board of directors of the syndicate of this condominium.
“We are really shocked and sorry that such an incident took place in our region”, he regretted, lamenting a “heartbreaking incident”. A 66-year-old woman was also “seriously injured and is in hospital,” said Jim MacSween, adding that her life is not in danger.
A semi-automatic weapon found at the scene
According to the daily Toronto Star, which relies in particular on court documents, the suspect had a long-standing dispute with the condominium council of the building, which had requested a restraining order against the “alleged threatening behavior, abusive, intimidating and harassing of Mr. Villi”. According to Kristy Denette, spokesperson for Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, which investigates every time officers use their weapon, “an officer shot and killed the man” in a corridor.
Around 8 p.m. the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene and a semi-automatic weapon was found at the scene, she said. “There were several deceased people on several floors” of the building, she added. At the beginning of the evening, around 7:20 p.m., the police were called for shooting and “once they arrived on the spot, the officers were confronted with a terrible scene with several people who had already died”, explained Sunday evening to the press the chief. of the font. One of the officers fired his firearm, killing the suspect, on the third floor of the building.
A “horrible tragedy” that shakes the community
“My thoughts are with the loved ones of those killed in the tragic shooting on Sunday evening,” reacted Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Security, on Twitter.
On Monday morning, Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca called the shooting a “horrifying tragedy” that is shaking the community “a few days before Christmas and Hanukkah.” “It’s something I never thought I’d see here,” he said, adding that people were “in absolute shock.”
A gendarme who took part in the intervention said that this drama was “the most terrible call” that she had had to manage “in her entire career”. Less familiar with mass shootings than its American neighbour, Canada is, however, experiencing an upsurge in violent acts of this type, which prompted authorities to recently legislate to ban handguns.
In April 2020, a gunman disguised as a policeman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia, in the east of the country, the worst killing recorded in Canada. In September, a man killed 11 people and stabbed 18 others, mostly in an isolated indigenous community in the center of the country.