A 79-year-old man was charged with murder Thursday after hitting three pedestrians in Toronto the day before.
Police in the Queen City announced they have arrested Ciro Garofano, a Toronto resident who now faces one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
The man is accused of intentionally ramming three pedestrians with his car in the parking lot of a residential building in the northeast of the city. One of the victims, a 61-year-old woman from Toronto, died from her injuries.
Packed four times
A witness at the scene told CBC News that the woman killed by the driver was hit four times.
Derek Bailey was sitting on his balcony and had a direct view of the action when the car came out of the parking lot and plowed into the people chatting below. He assured that the driver rushed towards his victims several times.
The deceased woman was trapped under the vehicle for a while, he said. She was run over four times.
“I feel sorry for the family. It was brutal. “The way she died is horrific,” Bailey told CBC News.
Police said on Wednesday that four pedestrians had been targeted. In addition to the deceased woman, two pedestrians were taken to hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, while the fourth was examined at the scene.
Authorities have not provided a motive that would explain the defendant’s actions. However, they assured on Wednesday that they had reason to believe that Garofano intentionally drove into the pedestrians. The suspect and the victims are known to each other, but their exact relationships have not been clarified.