Five condo residents were shot to death by a 73-year-old gunman who had been feuding with his neighbors in a Toronto suburb, police said.
Five residents of a Canada condo complex were shot to death by a 73-year-old gunman who had been feuding with his neighbors, police said.
Chief James MacSween of the York Regional Police said the suspect in Sunday night's attack was Francesco Velli, who killed three men and two women before being fatally shot by a responding officer.
MacSween said the veteran officer who killed Velli likely prevented more lives from being taken.
"Three victims were members of the condominium board," he said.
The province's Special Investigation Unit spokesperson, Kristy Denette, said the victims were found on different floors. Velli was armed with a semi-automatic handgun and it did not appear that he exchanged gunfire with the officer who killed him.
Police responded Sunday night to reports of an active shooter at a condominium complex in Vaughan, a Toronto suburb about 30 miles north of downtown.
“Once the officers arrived they were met with a horrendous scene where numerous victims were deceased,” MacSween told reporters at the time.
Velli had posted videos on his Facebook page saying he had an upcoming hearing regarding a lawsuit in which he claimed that the building's electrical room, located beneath his ground-floor unit, was making him sick.
At times appearing to ramble, Velli said in his posts that his heath had been endangered by electromagnetic waves coming from the room. One post included a telephone conversation he had taped with lawyers concerning his suit. One attorney for the condo corporation noted Velli had been asked to sell his unit and leave the building.
Mass shootings are unusual in Canada, and Toronto has long referred to itself as one of the safest big cities in the world.
Yet in 2020, a gunman disguised as a cop shot to death 22 people in Nova Scotia, the worst mass killing in Canada's history.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has been trying to stem gun violence with new legislation, including a measure banning the sale, transfer or purchase of handguns, which took effect in October.
"To the families and friends of the victims of yesterday's shooting in Vaughan, I'm keeping you in my thoughts," Trudeau said Monday on Twitter.
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