OPP police tape blocks off access to the scene at a conservation area near Clinton, Ont., on Sept. 15, 2014 of the Saturday evening shooting of Donato (Don) Frigo of Caledon East.DAVE CHIDLEY/The Canadian Press
They were riding their horses in the Hullett Wildlife Conservation Area just north of small town Clinton, Ont. It was last Saturday, late afternoon, and Donato Frigo and his wife Eva were enjoying a training break from a hunting dog competition being held nearby.
But in a span of seconds, a man approached the two riders and opened fire. Mr. Frigo, a 70-year-old Toronto businessman, was gunned down and died at the scene. His wife was wounded yet managed to flee on horseback.
The case has shocked those who knew Mr. Frigo, a vice-president of Hady Construction Associates, a division of the Sorbara Group – the real estate development and management company owned by the Sorbara family. Hady Construction has been designing, managing and constructing buildings in the Toronto area for the Sorbara Group since 1952. Its website boasts that it worked on the city's first strip mall, its first McDonald's and its first residential loft conversion.
The Huron County OPP has declared the shooting a criminal act. Officers have spoken carefully while acknowledging this: It was an unknown male gunman who shot at Mr. Frigo and his wife then got in his vehicle and drove away.
OPP spokesperson Constable Jamie Stanley described the investigation as being "complex," a significant reason the police have yet to send out a detailed description of the suspect or his vehicle.
"We have quite a number of resources involved with this," Constable Stanley said Tuesday. "It's really early still and we would like to remind the public of that. We want to do a thorough job. We're going to let the facts take us where they may."
Mr. Frigo, a resident of Caledon East, was described by Hady employee Peter Naccarato as "gracious and gentlemanly … an avid outdoorsman." Don and Joanne Sheridan live across the street from Mr. Frigo's home and considered him an "unassuming neighbour."
He and his wife were regarded as royalty in the dog training community. They were staging a field competition, an event that features a number of hunting dogs trying to finish first by flushing out the game.
The Ontario Bird Dog and Conservation Association was having a competition on the Saturday Mr. Frigo was killed. Contestants use starter guns – no bullets involved – to send the dogs running. People living near the Hullett Conservation site have said the area is well-known and used by hunters and horseback riders.
Mr. Naccarato told the media he was stunned and saddened when he saw the news Monday on the Ontario Out of Doors website. Mr. Naccarto said he didn't have "a clue" as to why anyone would want to kill his friend.
"It's a sad day. He loved his dogs and had a passion for horses," said Mr. Naccarato.
With a report from Tara Perkins in Toronto