Vaughan councillor tried to solve gunman's complaints a month before shooting

Iheartradio.ca
Dec. 21, 2022
Jon Woodward

About a month before five people were killed during a shooting spree in a condo north of Toronto, a city councillor met the presumed gunman in his suite looking to help solve his complaints, but didn’t see any evidence of the problems Francesco Villi fixated on, the councillor said.

Vaughan’s Mario G. Racco told CTV News Toronto that Villi had contacted him in November, and asked him to meet about problems with an electrical room near his unit -- one that Villi had already alleged in court was emitting harmful electromagnetic waves -- and an allegation a judge had already dismissed.

“He was upset, you could see that. He was animated. But he spoke well,” Racco recalled in an interview. “I told him if you want me to talk to you, quiet down, let me understand you. I’d be happy to assist.”

Racco said Villi’s suite was modest, no more messy than average, and explained that sometimes he had to sleep in a different spot thanks to the noise. He said Villi believed that the building’s developer had failed in its responsibilities to build a functioning electrical room, believed that city leadership was also doing nothing, and wanted the city to look into it.

Racco went with a member of the building’s staff to look at the electrical room, he said, but didn’t hear any noises or see anything amiss, and returned to tell this to Villi.

“He suggested they knew I was visiting,” he said. “Anything is possible, but I believe, quite frankly, that was the normal operation. I didn’t see anything… I am not an expert but based on my observations, I have to conclude that he was probably seeing things that didn’t seem to be there.”

Villi was in the midst of a protracted legal dispute with the condo over the electrical room construction that began in 2019. But things soon went off the rails. Villi fired his lawyer and then sued her, court records show, while the condo board documented numerous complaints of harassment, including calling neighbours ‘demons’ and surveilling people with his cell phone.

The condo got an order from the court restraining him from contacting the board except in writing -- something he breached, and was issued a $29,500 fine for contempt, documents say. He briefly followed a subsequent order but had returned to hurling insults at the members of the board, their filings say.

The board was applying for another further fine of contempt as well as an order to have him vacate the building and sell his home within 90 days.

According to one of the videos posted by Villi on his Facebook page, a lawyer for the board tells Villi, “The corporation is asking for you to sell your unit and move out. That’s the request at this point. You are not capable of living in the community and behaving.”

“You think I’m going to sell my unit?” Villi responded.

“That’s the request,” she said.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

The hearing into the matter was scheduled for Monday morning, just hours before police were called to the Bellaria Tower 2 in Vaughan to reports of multiple shootings on different floors. Villi himself was shot dead by police in response. Three of the dead were on the condo board, police said.

Racco said he didn’t see a gun in the suite, wants to know where the gun came from, and also wants to know more from city staff about the full extent of their interactions with him.

“Where did he get the gun? Did he buy it? Did he have one?” he asked. “We have a problem, and we’d better be looking into it right away.”

While Villi was under a restraining order from Newmarket Superior Court, that was from a civil hearing and not a criminal one, it’s unclear if the police would have been alerted to that ruling, said former OPP officer Cam Woolley.

“If no one informed authorities, they wouldn’t have the opportunity to take action. We’ve seen this in other cases, where people say after the fact, ‘I knew this was going to happen,’ but the reports weren’t made, or everybody thinks someone else is going to report it. That’s going to be an issue here,” Woolley said.

Some in the condo industry are reconsidering in-person meetings after the shooting, but that’s a mistake, said William Stratas of Eagle Audit, who said in-person compassion solves many more risks than it creates.

“Where was that off-ramp? I am not convinced at all that this had to occur, that this had to happen, even after years of strife,” he said.

CTV News Toronto also spoke with two realtors who dealt with Villi. The first said that when he sold the condo to Villi, there was a flood in the unit, but it was repaired. At the time, Villi did not behave like a “monster,” the realtor said.

Another realtor said that Villi approached him in the last three months to sell, and he did not appear agitated or display any red flags. After some conversations, Villi backed out of the sale, he said.

Racco said he was not disturbed by knowing that he had been in close contact with the shooter, because he treated it as a responsibility to meet with constituents.