A 73-year-old man has killed five of his neighbors and injured another in a shooting in a Toronto suburb, police said and are investigating.
• Also read: 6 people, including a 73-year-old suspect, killed in Ontario shooting
Suspect Francesco Villi also died after being shot dead by police. He resided in the building in Vaughan, a town about 30 kilometers north of Toronto, Ontario.
Three men and two women died, local police chief Jim MacSween told reporters Monday, who are now trying to identify the motive for the killings.
“All of the victims lived in the building,” he said, adding that three of them were members of the board of directors of that condominium’s syndicate.
“We are really shocked and regret that such an incident has occurred in our region,” he said, lamenting a “heartbreaking incident.”
Their bodies were found in three apartments in the building.
A 66-year-old woman was also “severely injured and is in the hospital,” MacSween said, adding that her life is not in danger.
According to the Toronto Star newspaper, which relies particularly on court documents, the suspect had a long-standing conflict with the building’s condominium community, which had sought an injunction against the “alleged threatening, abusive, intimidating and harassing conduct of Mr. Villi”.
According to Kristy Denette, spokeswoman for the Ontario Special Investigations Unit, which investigates every time officers use their gun, “an officer shot 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 multiple deceased on multiple floors” of the building, she added.
Earlier in the evening, around 7:20 p.m., police were called to the shooting and “once they got to the scene, officers were confronted with a horrifying scene with several people already deceased,” he told press .MacSween Sunday night.
One of the officers fired his firearm, killing the suspect on the third floor of the building.
“To the families and friends of the victims of yesterday’s shooting in Vaughan: My thoughts are with you. To the injured person: I wish you a speedy and full recovery,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau replied on Twitter.
To the families and friends of the victims of yesterday’s Vaughan shooting, my thoughts are with you. To the injured person: I wish you a speedy and full recovery. To the first responders: Thank you for your good work and professionalism.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 19, 2022
On Monday morning, Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca underscored the “horrible tragedy” rocking the community “just days before Christmas and Hanukkah.” “It’s something I never thought I’d see here,” he said, adding that people were “in absolute shock.”
On behalf of the City of Vaughan and the Council, I offer my condolences to the families of the victims killed in the shootings in the Jane Street and Rutherford Road area. I want to recognize the brave first responders working to protect the situation.
—Steven Del Duca (@StevenDelDuca) December 19, 2022
Canada is less familiar with mass shootings than its American neighbor, but is seeing a rise in such acts of violence, prompting authorities to recently enact a handgun ban in law.
In April 2020, a gunman disguised as a police officer killed 22 people in eastern Nova Scotia, the worst killing on record in Canada.
In September, a man killed 11 people and stabbed 18 others, mostly in a remote indigenous community in the center of the country.