The Decibel - What we know about the mass shooting near Toronto

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

On Sunday evening, five residents of a high-rise condo building in Vaughan, ON were shot and killed. A 73-year-old gunman was also shot and killed by police. Court documents reveal that the shooter had a years-long history of legal disputes with the condo board. Police said three of the people killed were members of the board.The Globe’s Dustin Cook tells us what we know so far about what happened and the gunman’s history with the condo board.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail].

Officers arrived to find a horrific scene, with five deceased victims having been shot and killed in three separate units. That's York Regional Police Chief Jim McSween, speaking at a press conference on Monday. On Sunday evening, police in Vaughan, Ontario, a suburb north of Toronto, responded to a call about an active shooter at a high-rise condo. We are truly shocked and sorry that such an incident took place in our region. The suspected gunman was shot and killed by police.

We spoke to The Globe's Dustin Cook on the scene in Vaughan late Monday afternoon. I'm Manika Raman-Wellms, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. Dustin, thank you so much for talking to me today. Thank you for having me. So things are moving fast. This is a developing story, but I just want to start with where are you right now? So right now I'm across the street from the condo building where the shootings occurred Sunday evening. And I'm in a mall parking lot. And across the street there's still a police presence, media crews, as I'm sure you can imagine,

as details are still unfolding about what happened here last night. And can you just describe the neighborhood that you're in? What is that area like? It's a busy intersection in Vaughan, and it's right on Rutherford Road and Jane Street, and there's quite a few high-rises, and it's surrounded by plazas. You can actually see Canada's Wonderland in the distance as well, right down the road. So where this occurred yesterday was a series of four condominium complexes and this happened in

one of those buildings. This morning it was still taped off with police tape out front. There was many police cruisers as well as the forensic unit as well still on the scene this morning inside the building. Okay and what do we know as of now what do we know about what happened at that condo building on Sunday night? So the latest updates that we have on Monday we just got an update from the York Regional Police in Aurora Monday afternoon and the police chief identified the suspect in this case, 73-year-old Francesco Vili. And Vili killed five people and one person is injured, a six-year-old woman is still injured and in hospital. And so Vili was a resident of the building, as were the five people. The shootings happened in three separate units in the condo building.

And then we know that Villy was killed by a police officer, Sean killed by a police officer in a hallway. We don't know all the details around that since it was a police shooting under investigation by the Special Investigations Unit for the province. And so that is still being looked into right now. And do we have any sense of, I guess, the timeline of how things happened? Like when were police called? When was this actually going on? So police were called to the scene for reports of gunshots at 7.20 yesterday evening.

We were told that they responded very quickly within three minutes to the scene for reports of gunshots at 7 20 yesterday evening we were told that they responded very quickly uh within three minutes to the scene and they entered the building and again details still being firmed up about the time of of when everything happened after that moment but the suspect mr villi was declared deceased at 8 p.m at the building. So that's a time span of 40 minutes. We know that police had to go to different floors of the building. This happened on multiple floors in multiple units and find the victims of the shootings. So that's the time frame that we have as of right now. What's the atmosphere like there, Dustin like have you been able to talk to people how are they feeling i think today and this morning when i was when i was on the ground it was a lot of shock and fear i think there was a lot of fear there was cars slowly um moving by i know that residents

of the condo where this took place where wereuated yesterday. They had to leave the building. It took a while before they were able to go back in late last night. There was a couple people who, you know, saw media there, rolled down their windows to speak to us. And, you know, they were definitely scared and shocked, I think, that this happened. A lot of the people in and around, people were walking by, and I would say a lot of them were seniors. And people were, you know, showed up yesterday from their day out, a Sunday out doing errands, showed up after shopping and saw a major police presence and didn't know what happened. And they weren't in the building when it happened. We then heard from people, you know, heard commotion and went into the hallway and saw police officers with guns.

And so, you know, that was kind of the different ways that people in the building were seeing what unfolded there yesterday. Yeah. So we know that five people were killed and a sixth was injured and is in hospital. And then, of course, the gunman was also killed. What do we know about the victims here, Dustin? So still waiting on a lot of details for that. What we were able to get today was the genders of the victims. So three adult men, two adult women were killed. We didn't get any more details than that. York Regional Police said that while they were hoping to provide the IDs of the victims, that the coroner's office was still working to confirm the identities and reach out to families. We do know that three of the five victims who were killed were on the condo board.

Condo Corporation, actually, I believe is the proper title for that building. And the police chief for York Regional Police said it. It's tough to say if they were targeted and that they will investigate what that may mean. OK. Do we know if these individuals were in some way connected to the shooter? So we don't know all the details around that. But what we do know is that um the suspect mr billy had disputes with the condo board and uh there was litigation uh ongoing so in october 2019 there was an order prohibiting him from communicating with the board taking photos uh he was accused of taking photos of residents and swearing at them

and not being kind to people who lived in the building. That did not stop. And so in September of this year, there was movement from the condo board to remove him from the building. And the corporation of the condo was seeking imprisonment because he wouldn't stop his actions and making people who,

with a charge making people who live there feel unsafe. So they were seeking imprisonment for the shooter. That's right. Because of his because of his actions over the years, they said that there's been longstanding confrontations of him harassing residents, including taking photos of them, swearing at them. And he was ordered to stop doing that. Okay, so I want to ask you a little bit more about this, because as you said, a number of the victims were on the condo board. We know from court documents that there had been some sort of conflict between him and the board of the condo. What do we know about what happened there? Yeah, so we know that there's been ongoing disputes between Mr. Ville and the condo board. We know that dating back to 2019, there was a court order against him prohibiting him from communicating with the condo board or employees of the condo.

He was accused of making videos and audio recordings of them and people who lived in the condo. And it was found that he did not stop that outright and was found in contempt of that. So in September of this year, the condo corporation did initiate a legal process to request his incarceration and force him to sell his condo unit. And our understanding is there was supposed to be a court date on that this week. Yeah, there was supposed to be a hearing on Monday, if I'm correct. Do we know what that hearing was about? I believe it was tied to this, this hearing and about forcing him to sell his unit. But my understanding is because of what happened on on Sunday, that there was a stay in the hearing and it did not proceed today. Okay, so there's a conflict. We don't exactly

know the details of the conflict here, but the board was basically trying to get him to sell his unit and actually looking for him to be incarcerated then. So there were some serious conflicts here. Absolutely, yes. And, you know, as details are still being determined and we're trying to dig into more of the court documents as to what, as you said, what the conflict was, but definitely there was disputes and ongoing litigation and the condo board was looking for a remedy in having him removed from the building.

We'll be back in a moment. The shooter was also quite active posting videos on social media. What are police saying about these videos? They said that they would be taking them into account for their investigations. I believe, you know, recent videos as of Sunday earlier this week, the suspect was posting videos and raising concerns about the condo and the condo board. He was raising concerns about the air quality of the condo building. He was taking issue with how things were run in the building and airing that publicly. But we also heard that he attended a holiday Christmas party hosted by the board and not that long ago and things seemed amicable at that time and cordial and he attended and there was no conflict or issues raised there.

Have police said anything about what they'll be looking for in these videos? Like when they're going through them, what they'll be kind of watching out for? Yeah, not explicitly today, but I know that they're looking to figure out the motive here. Were these five victims targeted? We do know that this happened on different floors. So presumably it wasn't all in one specific area. We don't know how the suspect entered these units or what that interaction was like. We do know, as we've mentioned, that three of the victims were members of the condo board, which, with his disputes with the condo board, would definitely be something of interest to the police. Again, today, they didn't make a direct link, but said that that's something that they will be keeping in mind as they try and figure out what happened. Let's turn to the investigations, Dustin, because there's a lot that we don't know yet.

But we did hear from the York Regional Police on Monday afternoon. Haven't learned a ton of details yet at this stage. But we also heard from the Special Investigations Unit on Monday. Can you just elaborate a little bit for me here? What is the SIU's responsibility in this case? Absolutely. So as I mentioned, there was a police officer involved with shooting the suspect and ultimately killing the suspect. So anytime that happens and there's police violence and use of a police weapon the special investigations unit for the province is involved to investigate it acts as a watchdog for the police service

and so it will be looking into if it was proper use of force investigating how the police responded and if they did so you know following their code of conduct and how they're trained to do so. On Monday, there was an update from the Special Investigations Unit outside the condo building, and they were able to provide a bit more detail, including the weapon that was used by the suspect. It was a semi-automatic handgun. Neither the SIU or police could confirm if the gun was legally registered by the suspect and other than that not a lot of details about what actually happened with the police officer we don't know if there was other police around we don't know how the confrontation between the police officer and the suspect unfolded on Sunday but we do know that the police believe that it was only this one police officer who shot at the suspect.

So there's still going to be lots coming out in the investigation in the coming days, it sounds like. Dustin, when a mass shooting like this happens, one of the questions that we're left with is whether it could have been prevented. So were there any indications that this was going to happen? I think that's the question that, you know, police will be asking, the people doing the investigations will be asking. I think there's a lot that will be looked at in terms of the videos that have been posted and also these legal proceedings that show that there was an issue for quite some time, an issue that was escalating. And it will be those people who will determine what could have been done differently.

So just lastly here, Dustin, I mean, you've been on the scene there for hours at this point, and we'll probably learn more details in the coming days. But what will you be watching out for? Obviously, right now, we are focused on getting as many details we can about this investigation and about what happened. And with that, of course, learning more about the five victims, these people who were killed in their homes. And, you know, three of them, as we know, were on the condo board. So possibly learning about any link there and if there's any reason for why these people were the ones that the suspect shot uh sunday night and then also um you know learning more about the suspect we know that he has had concerns with the condo board and has had you know court hearings

uh on that matter so uh learning more if if there's anything more there about, about his history with, with the courts. Dustin, thank you for your reporting on this and thank you for talking to me today. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

That's it for today. I'm Mainika Raman-Wilms. Our producers are Madeline White, Cheryl Sutherland, and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. David Crosby edits the show. Kasia Mihailovic is our senior producer, and Angela Pichenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.