Relief swept through west Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood Tuesday after a local man was arrested in connection with a string of recent beating attacks – one fatal – targeting people with mental illnesses.
“I never felt unsafe in Parkdale, but during this I did,” said Kristen Murray, 31, a lifelong resident who resides close to where the assaults took place.
Ricardo Morrison, 32, faces two charges of assault causing bodily harm, involving incidents that took place April 2 and 5, and is viewed as “a person of interest” in the killing of 62-year-old George Wass, police said.
Four other seemingly random attacks are under also scrutiny, and all took place in the area of Maynard Avenue, near King and Dufferin Streets. In several instances, victims were kicked and punched by a balaclava-wearing man, who struck suddenly, Inspector Brian Bott of the homicide squad told a news conference.
“Obviously the assaults from April 2 and April 5 are similar in nature to the other assaults in the area, but we are seeking further evidence right now.”
The unprovoked, late-night attacks, all of which appear to have targeted people with mental-health issues, created anxiety across Parkdale, home to many of the city's neediest residents.
The accused lived alone in a three-storey rooming house on Maynard Avenue, just across the road from Ms. Murray. She said police had been staking out the street all last week.
The superintendent of the rooming house, Robert Douche, 60, recalled Mr. Morrison as pleasant and easy-going and said he had been living there for about a year.
“I had no reason to think he’d do this,” Mr. Douche said, adding that on the day Mr. Morrison was arrested he had been helping him repair the driveway.
The accused lived in a tiny one-room apartment with whitewashed walls and only a chest of drawers and table as furniture. Mr. Douche emptied out the room on Tuesday, tossing food, clothing and a mattress out on the ground below.
Mr. Morrison would sometimes hang out on the second-floor balcony overlooking Maynard Avenue and another rooming house where three of the victims lived, including Mr. Wass, Mr. Douche said.
From the outset, police believed a single assailant was responsible for the earlier attacks, and when Mr. Wass died March 21, several days after being beaten outside his rooming house, he was thought to have been killed by the same assailant.
Insp. Bott, however, said police are still eyeing several possible suspects in Mr. Wass’s death, including Mr. Morrison, and he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a copycat.
“We just have to go where the evidence takes us,” Insp. Bott said.
Mr. Morrison often complained about other tenants, chiefly for making too much noise, Mr. Douche said.
Among those attacked was Dan Chiarelli, 45, who was beaten on Maynard Avenue April 5. Mr. Chiarelli, who lives in the same rooming house as the accused, said he didn’t know Mr. Morrison well, but that the two had quarrelled over use of the kitchen.
“The guy just didn’t like me,” he said.
Mr. Chiarelli said the accused didn’t seem like an angry person, and that while he was relieved an arrest had been made, he was surprised to learn it was Mr. Morrison who had been charged.
