TORONTO — A 73-year-old man who had a long-running dispute with his condo board in a suburb above Toronto killed five people, including three board members, after claiming in court and on social networks that the building’s electrical room was making him sick. .
York Regional Police Chief James MacSween identified the suspect in Sunday night’s attack in Vaughan, Ont., as Francesco Villi. He told a news conference on Monday that Villi shot dead three men and two women and injured a 66-year-old woman, who is hospitalized and expected to survive.
“Three victims were members of the condominium’s board of directors,” he said.
Police said officers were called to an active shootout at the building around 7:20 p.m. Sunday and a police officer shot Villi inside the building, where Villi and the victims lived.
Villi has long claimed that vibrations and emissions from the building’s electrical room were making him sick, and that board members and the building’s developer were to blame, according to court documents.
MacSween said police are still investigating the motive for the attack, which occurred at three separate units in the building.
Special Investigations Unit spokeswoman Kristy Denette said police found the victims on different floors. She said Villi had a semi-automatic handgun and investigators do not believe he exchanged gunfire with the officer who killed him.
On Sunday and in the days leading up to the attack, Villi posted rambling videos on Facebook in which he talked about having a legal dispute with the condo board.
In the videos, he claimed to have health problems caused by the building’s electrical room. The messages include recordings of phone conversations he had with lawyers about his case. In a video he posted on Sunday, the building’s attorney noted that the condo company asked him to sell his unit and move out.
This drama is driving me crazy. I’m sick anyway,” he said.
The attorney noted that there was an online hearing in his case scheduled for Monday and that he needed to go to the condo management office, where the manager would help him get online.
Villi claimed on the call that he was not ready to present his case at the hearing. He also asked what the council wanted from him, to which the lawyer said he needed him to stop harassing and yelling at people and to pay the condo corporation’s legal fees. . She noted that the case had been dragging on for years.
“Can I die in peace? (It’s been) seven years of torture,” Villi said.
In a video, he said: “They want me dead. You can take this body but never this soul. .. I’m ready to die.
Villi had filed a lawsuit against six board directors and officers in 2020 alleging they “committed felony and criminal acts beginning in 2010”.
He also accused them of deliberately causing him five years of “torment” and “torture” related to problems he had with the electrical room under his unit, according to court documents. Judge Joseph Di Luca dismissed the lawsuit this summer, calling it “frivolous” and “vexatious.”
According to court documents, the council sought a restraining order in 2018 against Villi for his “allegedly threatening, abusive, intimidating and harassing behavior” towards the council, property management, workers and residents.
Resident John Santoro said Monday that he knew Villi had a firearms acquisition certificate, but he didn’t know if Villi actually owned a gun. He said he was also aware of Villi’s issues with the condo board.
“I know the story and I know the man. I know the board. I know this has been brewing for a long time. And I told my wife several times that it was going to end very badly,” Santoro said.
It is tragic because, in my opinion, it was dismissed by the courts. He was rejected by the lawyers and he was rejected by the condominium company because if you come out clearly from his social media, you will clearly see that this man needed professional help.
Santoro, a former board member, said the condo company put pads on the equipment in the electrical room so that when it vibrated, it wouldn’t be directly on the concrete.
“He wasn’t a monster,” Santoro said. “He was very religious and very generous. I just think he got caught up in a situation that ended very badly for everyone.”
Mass shootings are rare in Canada, and Toronto has long prided itself on being one of the safest major cities in the world. Vaughan is just north of Toronto.
Canadians are concerned about anything that might indicate they are approaching the situation of gun violence in the United States, where mass shootings are common.
“Everyone is horrified,” Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca said. Waking up to this news this morning or seeing it last night, we are in absolute shock. … It’s something I never thought I’d see here.
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This story was first published in December. 19. It was updated on December 31. 20 to correct the spelling of the alleged assailant’s last name. His name was Francesco Villi, not Velli.
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