Victims identified in ‘unfathomable’ Vaughan condo shooting
Posted December 20, 2022 1:53 pm.
Last Updated December 20, 2022 6:45 pm.
A steady stream of mourners laid flowers Tuesday at the Vaughan condominium where police say 73-year-old Francesco Villi killed five people, three of them condo board members, before he was fatally shot by a York Regional Police officer Sunday evening.
The five victims have been identified as Rita Camilleri, 57, Vittorio Panza, 79, Russell Manock, 75, Lorraine Manock, 71 and Naveed Dada, 59.
Camilleri, Dada and Russell Manock were all on the condo board.
A sixth shooting victim who survived with serious injuries has been identified by her husband as Doreen Di Nino. Her husband is the current condo board president.
In an update Tuesday, York Regional Police Chief, Jim MacSween, said Russell Manock and Lorraine Manock were partners, as were Rita Camilleri and Vittorio Panza.
MacSween shared the following personal details about the victims on behalf of their families
Rita Camilleri: A smart business woman who had a contagious laugh and a zest for life. She loved to travel, cook and host for her family and friends who she cared for deeply.
Vittorio Panza: A proud Italian immigrant and well-respected realtor for over 40 years who had a great passion for music. He was a husband and father to three daughters and had seven grandchildren. Panza was Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Victor Mete’s maternal grandfather, the Leafs confirmed in a statement.
Naveed Dada: A great son and brother. He spent half his life in Canada and always wanted to serve his community and help those in need.
Russell Manock: Hard-working, caring loving father and grandfather, cherished every moment he spent with his family. He was the family rock.
Lorraine Manock: A most loving mother, grandmother and sister, selfless and generous — a kind soul who touched every person’s lives (she) met.
The Manock family reached out to CityNews to provide the photo of the couple below, saying, “They were devoted to each other and their family. Soulmates in life and now in heaven.”
Lorraine and Russell Manock in photo provided by family.
Police said it’s too soon to speculate on a possible motive, but documents obtained by CityNews outline a long-standing dispute between Villi and the condo board that started with complaints about the electrical room under his unit and continued to escalate.
What followed was years of legal wrangling and social media posts by Villi targeting the board.
In videos he posted to Facebook in the hours leading up to the massacre, Villi said the condo board wanted to “murder” him or “destroy” him.
Francesco Villi is shown in this image taken from a recent video and posted on his personal Facebook page on Dec. 19, 2022. FACEBOOK / Francesco Villi.
Mourners, residents and friends of the victims expressed their shock and dismay at the scene of the mass killings on Tuesday.
Patricia, who lives in one of the condo towers, described a previously happy community that’s been shattered by the violence.
“I’m devastated,” she told OMNI News.
“You’ve (Villi) ruined six families, you’ve destroyed a community. We were a very happy community. Everyone got along very well everyone looked out for each other. It’s devastating.”
Flowers placed at the condo where six people, including the gunman, were killed in Vaughan. OMNI News
A woman named Marilyn said she doesn’t live at the building, but knew members of the condo board. She said they were “wonderful people.”
“This is so sad, so sad. It’s going to take all of us a very long time to get over. I’ve been here before meeting with them (board members), they were just a great group of people,” she said, calling the killings “unfathomable.”
Anna Vinogradova, who said she lives in the building and knew one of the victims, laid flowers down at the scene.
“I feel very traumatized obviously because I have a family here, a daughter,” she said.
RELATED: Residents of Vaughan condo describe gunman as disruptive with behavioural issues
“It was a legal battle between him and the board.
“I feel like mental health is something that needs to be talked about a lot and I feel like that played a big factor in this situation. Unfortunately, it got to something it never should have got to.”
Another woman named Anna agreed.
“I don’t really know him personally, but obviously he needed some help and didn’t get it,” she said.
Toronto Mayor John Tory touched on the issue during an unrelated event on Tuesday. While Tory said he didn’t want to comment on Villi’s situation specifically, he called mental health issues a “crisis situation” requiring action by all three levels of government.
“In general terms when anybody decides to take a knife or gun and does harm to other people over something that is a fairly trivial matter … and multiple people end up losing their lives as a result of that, clearly there are mental health issues involved,” he said.
Tory said many people are in need of mental health help, and the pandemic likely exacerbated their issues due to the “solitary nature of how people had to spend their time and the lack of access they might of had to professional help during that time.”
“I think it’s just one more very tragic indication of a much broader problem that requires urgent attention by all three levels of government,” he said.
With files from Dilshad Burman
