AHMAD o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2008-05-20 published
Police discover third body in charred home
By Jill MAHONEY,
Page
A11
Investigators discovered a third body yesterday in the charred
ruins of a Don Mills townhouse believed to be the scene of a
double murder-suicide.
Two bodies had been found previously, after a suspicious fire
engulfed the home Saturday evening. The three bodies are thought
to be those of a woman, her husband and her mother.
"That's what we anticipate, and that would make it a double homicide-suicide,"
said Toronto police homicide Detective Doug
SANSOM.
Around the time of the blaze, a three-year-old boy, who police
believe was orphaned by the fire, was found unharmed by a neighbour
after the man received a mysterious knock on his door. The boy
was carrying a confession note.
"The note would indicate that there's some foul play," Det.
SANSOM
said, adding it appeared to be in a man's handwriting.
The note referred to a tape recorder in a nearby car that had
only the sounds of people singing in English, Urdu and Hungarian.
Police suspect the person who tried to make the recording was
unaware the tape recorder did not work.
The boy has been in the care of the Children's Aid Society, but
police believe he will be released to a paternal aunt who lives
outside Toronto.
The second body, found Sunday, and the third body had not been
removed from the townhouse late yesterday afternoon because of
concerns about the structure's safety.
Police had responded to past complaints of domestic violence
at the address on Green Belt Drive; the last incident was about
three years ago, Det.
SANSOM said. As well, emergency responders
reported a strong smell of gasoline at the fire, which occurred
in the Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue area.
Police said the victims are believed to be a 41-year-old man
and two women, aged 46 and 70. Police won't officially release
the names until the badly burned bodies are identified, likely
through dental records or DNA. However, they have been identified
by local media as Magid
AHMAD, his wife, Ildiko
SZAVA, and her
mother, Karolyne
GALLASZ.
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AHMAD o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2008-06-14 published
Double shooting shakes gun-weary Toronto
Two 25-year-old men killed downtown; carjacking suspected
By Timothy
APPLEBY and Jamie
KOMARNICKI with reports from Sarah
BOESVELD and Matthew
CAMPBELL,
Page A1
Toronto -- It was just after midnight yesterday when Alan
DUDECK's
cellphone rang, bearing the worst tidings a parent could hear:
His son, Oliver
MARTIN, and his son's lifelong friend Dylan
ELLIS
had just been shot.
The two young men had been heading home from a friend's apartment
after watching a basketball game, and the frantic call came from
a close friend of Mr.
MARTIN.
"He said, 'Get down to St. Mike's [hospital] right away,' Mr.
DUDECK
recounted.
Mr. MARTIN worked for a prestigious investment firm. Mr.
ELLIS
was a photographer. Both were 25, with university degrees. And
both, it seemed, had a shining future. Instead, both perished
in an apparently random hail of bullets, leaving their families
in shock.
"Pretty rough, pretty rough," Mr.
DUDECK said.
Even in a city where gun killings have become familiar - yesterday's
shootings bring Toronto's homicide count for the year to 25 -
the double slaying, perhaps the result of an abortive carjacking,
was unusual.
As police struggled to reconstruct the events west of the city's
entertainment district, Detective Sergeant Gary
GIROUX of the
homicide squad stressed that from all appearances, neither Mr.
ELLIS
nor Mr. MARTIN was involved in crime.
"Both young men were loved by their families, they have a great
deal of support, and as you can imagine, both families are devastated,"
he said.
"These two victims were not at all known - I repeat, not at all
known - to the Toronto police or any police agency in Canada."
The only police record of either stems from when one of them
lost his passport about five years ago, another homicide investigator
said.
A 911 call came in at 12: 08 a.m. yesterday to the 14 Division
police station.
Mr. ELLIS and Mr.
MARTIN were found in the front seat of a Range
Rover that belongs to Mr.
ELLIS's stepfather, outside a friend's
condo where they had been watching a basketball game on television.
Both were wearing seat belts and the car's engine was running,
police said.
Despite paramedics' efforts, both were pronounced dead on arrival
at Saint Michael's Hospital.
In the back seat of the Range Rover was a female friend who survived
the attack and who is the homicide squad's key witness.
"It may well be the shooter didn't see her and that's why she's
alive," Mr.
DUDECK said. "We don't know."
All three had been watching the Boston Celtics pull off a comeback
win against the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball
Association playoffs.
For several hours, the car was parked outside the condo, and
the three departed at around midnight. They briefly returned
for what Det. Sgt.
GIROUX described as "a very innocent reason&hellip
they were expecting someone to come out for a very brief moment."
Instead, they were accosted by the gunman.
"I'd say the shooting took place within seconds," Det. Sgt.
GIROUX
said. "He may have only been targeting the males in the front
seat, but they were certainly in my opinion targeted."
Multiple shots were fired - at least eight, judging by shell-casing
markers on the street yesterday - killing the two young men and
damaging the interior of the Range Rover.
After speaking to the traumatized young woman, Det. Sgt.
GIROUX
said the shootings may have been part of an abortive car jacking,
and that - for reasons he did not divulge - the killer appeared
familiar with the area.
"We're certainly alive to the fact that this was a very expensive,
high-end vehicle and I'm looking at it as a marketable thing
to steal."
Another police source suggested the violence could have erupted
from something as simple as an exchange of angry words.
One witness report said a young black male in a white shirt was
seen fleeing the crime scene on a bicycle. Another offered a
similar description, but said the man sped away in a blue car.
Under scrutiny, meanwhile, was an array of closed-circuit video
footage from buildings near the crime scene.
A friend of the victims who was at Thursday night's gathering
said she and other attendees were traumatized by the shooting.
Police swiftly cordoned off the area with yellow tape, and yesterday
afternoon, the Range Rover was still being examined by forensic
experts.
The car was parked immediately outside 798 Richmond St. West,
an upscale, five-year-old rental high-rise, surrounded by townhouses.
The area comprises a mix of new money and old, a few blocks west
of the downtown entertainment district.
Just metres north is a vibrant section of Queen Street West,
and on all sides are older brick homes, some of Victorian vintage.
"There's a sense of community; my house has been broken into,
but I do usually feel safe walking along the streets late at
night," said long-time resident Maria
BARABASH, who lives a block
east of the crime scene on Richmond Street.
"But this is a little bit too close to home."
So too for the families of the victims.
About 30 people gathered on the lawn of Mr.
ELLIS's parents'
home in the upscale Rosedale neighbourhood. Some hugged, while
others stood around or sat on the lawn in shock.
Tears in his eyes, a young man demanded that reporters respect
the family's privacy and leave the street and its million-dollar
homes and expensive cars.
Lauren WILKINS, a friend of Mr.
MARTIN and Mr.
ELLIS, said yesterday
the two men were "just wonderful people."
A few blocks away at Mr.
OLIVER's home, family members from the
East Coast began filtering into the big, ivy-clad brick house,
hugging and exchanging condolences.
Mr. MARTIN lived downtown in a house he shared with his sisters.
He graduated with a bachelor of commerce degree from Concordia
University's John Molson School of Business. He joined Russell
Investments Canada last year and quickly made his mark as a friendly
young man poised to take the financial world by storm, said company
president Irshaad
AHMAD.
"He was the person walking around the office always making Friends.
He just made a really tremendous impact."
Mr. MARTIN and Mr.
ELLIS had known each other since they were
in Grade 1 in Toronto's Brown Junior Public School.
From
Toronto, the pair headed for Quebec - Mr.
MARTIN attending
Concordia
University while Mr.
ELLIS pursued his passion for
photography at Dawson College.
Mr. ELLIS was a thoughtful photographer with an eye for detail,
his former mentor said.
"His style was a bit more urban, a bit more shadowy," recalled
Laurel Breidon, co-ordinator of the college's commercial photography
program.
"Not the bright, clean, happy stuff - a little funky, had a little
edge to it."
Mourners set up a candle-lit shrine last night outside the building
where Mr. MARTIN and Mr.
ELLIS were shot. About 20 bouquets of
flowers had been laid against the wall and three candles illuminated
a sign taped to the building that reads "May you rest in peace
Dylan and Oliver."
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