The suspected mob-related shooters that gunned down a Roncesvalles Ave. restaurateur last week didn’t have to use a gun if they wanted to deliver a message, Mayor John Tory insists.
“I just think that there are plenty of ways that people can send messages if that’s something that they need to do without using guns and without engaging in this kind of violent criminal activity. So, we’ll be trying to fight it,” Tory said Monday, when asked about the shooters’ motives.
The civic leader added he was supportive of social programs to help steer people away from a life of crime, though he appeared to acknowledge that might not be effective in this particular case.
Paolo Caputo, owner of Domani’s Restaurant, was gunned down Friday in what appeared to be a professional hit.
“I am absolutely outraged at the notion that people think it’s OK in any city — let alone Toronto, but especially Toronto — to send a message to anybody else using a gun and to even shoot at somebody, let alone to kill somebody,” Tory said. “So to me this is just more of this kind of unacceptable behaviour that we have seen in far too great a quantity in our city this year.”
Police have blamed much of the gun violence in the city this year on street gangs, but Caputo’s death is being investigated for possible mob connections.
Tory said he has confidence in the ability of police investigators to get to the bottom of the murder and other shootings.
“I don’t think you could imagine how much it breaks my heart because this is still a safe city and it is a wonderful city in which to live,” he said.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
