One elderly resident of a luxury condo building in the Toronto area allegedly went on a Sunday night door-to-door trek in which he gunned down the members of the building’s board prior to police being able to move in and take him down, explained police officials.
The unidentified old man, age 73, shot and killed a total of five individuals thought to be members of the building’s board for the Bellaria Towers in suburban Vaughan as part of what seems like a rampage that kicked off at roughly 7:30 in the evening. Once police forces made it to the scene, the man squared up against them prior to being shot dead.
“There is no further threat to the community at this point,” stated Jim MacSween, the Regional Police Chief of York. “We offer our sincere condolences to the victims and their families.”
Six people were shot and killed inside a Vaughan condo on Sunday, including the suspect.
"It's a horrendous scene."https://t.co/V2n9tY5qGO
— CityNews Toronto (@CityNewsTO) December 19, 2022
Another individual was shot by the gunman, but managed to pull through to survive the ordeal, explained authorities. MacSween did not highlight any sort of motive or even confirm if the rampaging gunman had actually been a resident of the building. The identities of the victims have still not been made public pending notification of their families.
As stated by Constable Laura Nicolle to CNN, the crime scene at the building was the “most terrible call I’ve seen in my entire career.” She stated that all of those found dead were discovered in different apartments. The Special Investigations Unit of Ontario was helping local officials carry out their investigation.
The city of Vaughan sits roughly 20 miles north of Toronto.
The area was described by one resident as very quiet and safe.
“We wouldn’t imagine seeing that in our buildings, right, but nowadays you see everything,” explained the man to the outlet, CityNews.
Steven Del Duca, the Mayor of Vaughan, spoke out via social media early Monday morning about the incident.
“On behalf of the City of Vaughan and council, I offer my condolences to the families of the victims killed in the shootings that occurred in the area of Jane Street and Rutherford Road,” explained Del Luca. “I want to recognize the brave first responders who are working to safeguard the situation.”
As of writing, police officials did not reveal just what type of gun was used by the killed, but earlier this year the Canadian government chose to wholesale ban the sale of all handguns. While mass shootings are quite rare in Canada, back in 2020 a denture salesman, age 51, gunned down a total of 22 people while disguised as a police offer in Nova Scotia before being taken down by police officials. In September, 11 people were killed and another 18 were stabbed out in Saskatchewan.
