Bio

Francesco Villi was born on January 2, 1949. He and his mother left Italy and moved to Canada in 1966. They settled in Canada, and he lived there for the rest of his life.

Villi worked as a home builder for about 40 years. He described himself in videos and documents as having that trade and said he spent most of his working life building houses.

In 2014, Villi bought a condominium unit at the Bellaria Residences in Vaughan, Ontario. He tried to sell the unit in 2015 but was unable to do so after a new phase of nearby condos entered the market with lower maintenance fees, which made selling harder.

Villi had three daughters who were estranged from him. His daughters later described his personality as sometimes aggressive and having a “Jekyll and Hyde” type of nature.

Murder Story

On December 18, 2022, a mass shooting took place at the Bellaria Residences condominium tower in Vaughan, north of Toronto. Police responded to a report of an active shooting at about 7:20 p.m. They found multiple victims on several floors. The gunman appeared to target three separate units. He was trying to enter another unit when police found him in a hallway on the third floor.

The officer who found the man at first thought he was a resident trying to enter his apartment. When the officer challenged him, the man turned and showed he was holding a handgun. The officer ordered him not to move and to drop the weapon. The man raised his weapon and was fatally shot by the officer.

Six people were killed in the building, including the gunman. Five residents died: Rita Camilleri, 57; her husband Vittorio Panza, 79; Russell Manock, 75; his wife Lorraine, 71; and Naveed Dada, 59. A 66-year-old woman was seriously injured and hospitalized. Camilleri, Manock, and Dada were members of the condominium’s board of directors.

Police identified the gunman as 73-year-old Francesco Villi. He was a resident of the building and was killed by police in the hallway. He used a Beretta 92A1 semi-automatic handgun that he had legally purchased in 2019. Some residents said Villi had been involved in a disagreement with the condominium board.

Court records and news reports show Villi had an ongoing dispute with the condo board. He had filed court claims about noise, vibration, and electromagnetic waves coming from an electrical room beneath his unit. The judge struck one of his claims in August 2022 and declared him a vexatious litigant. He was due to appear in court the day after the shooting, when the board planned to seek his eviction.

The condominium corporation had earlier obtained a restraining order against Villi in 2018. Court files show the corporation had asked the court to restrain what it called threatening, abusive, or harassing behaviour. Villi had also sued six directors and officers of the condominium board in 2020. A judge later struck that case as frivolous or vexatious.

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit reviewed the police response and determined there was no criminal wrongdoing by the officers involved. Local and provincial leaders offered condolences, and flags were flown at half-mast at city buildings. On the evening of December 21, over 150 people attended a candlelight vigil for the five victims. Villi’s three daughters issued a statement expressing shock and heartbreak and described their father as having an aggressive, “Jekyll and Hyde”-type personality.