Vaughan mass shooting: Man was in condo when gunman showed up, shot wife

Globalnews.ca
Dec. 21, 2022
Liam Casey

John Di Nino remembers scrambling over to help his wife after a man shot her at point-blank range at the entrance of their Toronto-area condominium with a bullet he believes was meant for him.

He recalls rushing over to the area by the front door, which she had just answered, to help her. But from there, it’s a blur.

“My wife was hit with a gunshot and things just went kind of haywire,” Di Nino told The Canadian Press in an interview Tuesday.

“We’re trying to process how this could have happened. We have so many unanswered questions.”

Doreen Di Nino, 66, is the lone survivor of a shooting rampage that left five people dead at a Vaughan, Ont., condominium on Sunday night. She is resting in hospital after undergoing emergency surgery Monday, her husband said.

“We do have a long road ahead of us,” he said.

Police said they were called to the highrise for an “active shooter” at 7:21 p.m. and tracked the gunman -- identified as 73-year-old building resident Francesco Villi -- to the third floor, where an officer shot him dead.

Court documents indicate the shooter had a long-standing dispute with his condo board and believed the board was trying to kill him by electromagnetic waves emanating from the electrical room below his unit.

Authorities said three of the five people killed were members of the condo board.

John Di Nino, who is president of the board, believes the gunman meant to shoot him instead.

“I was the likely target, not my wife,” Di Nino said. “But he moved on after shooting her. That’s the thing that is running through my head right now.”

Di Nino said he knew everyone who was shot.

“All of those deceased people are friends of mine,” he said. “They were people who served on the condo board with me.”

York Regional Police said Rita Camilleri, 57, Vittorio Panza, 79, Russell Manock, 75, Helen Manock, 71, and Naveed Dada, 59, were killed at their condominium on Sunday.

Di Nino said Villi had worried the board for a while.

“We were all concerned about his behaviour, but no one could have ever imagined this outcome,” he said.

Villi, the board and the condominium corporation had a years-long legal dispute that was set to continue Monday in court after he had been found in contempt for disobeying court orders.

The condo board wanted his penalty to be a forced sale of his condo unit and removal from the building.

“From time to time, we make decisions that not everybody’s going to agree with,” Di Nino said of the board’s actions. “I just wish that there were better processes in place that we could have dealt with this and not resort to this senseless tragedy.”

Their home remains a crime scene with police still investigating, he said. For now, Di Nino is spending most of his time by his wife at the hospital.

He said he’s not sure if they can move back to the condominium when his wife is ready to leave the hospital as it might be too difficult.

“That’s my home, that’s our sanctuary, that’s our safe spot,” he said. “Life will never be the same.”