The mother of a man police have accused of murdering four men was arrested Wednesday evening and now faces charges of her own.
Toronto Police allege Hyacinth Moore helped her son, Mark Garfield Moore, destroy evidence in a homicide and robbery investigation.
Mr. Moore was arrested last week and faces 56 gun-related charges, including four for first-degree murder. Police allege the 27-year-old gunned down four men over a three-month period last year. Most of the victims had no criminal records.
A knock on Ms. Moore's Scarborough apartment door went unanswered Wednesday night, and a man who answered the phone hung up when he realized a reporter was calling.
The Moore family has a troubled and violent history that dates back as far as 2001.
That year, Mark was shot in the face in his family's Weston Road apartment building after opening the door to two strangers. The then-16-year-old survived, but was left with a disfigured jaw.
Just a few months later, a Toronto police officer was shot and seriously wounded in the Moore's neighbourhood. Mark's older brother, André, was suspected of pulling the trigger, but was never convicted. André was found shot to death in Oct. 2008.
Mr. Moore's youngest brother, Taimone, was shot in a parking lot in 2008, when he was 16, while another brother, Jerome, was charged last year with stealing a car from a dealership and crashing it into other vehicles, according to court documents.
Last week, a distraught Ms. Moore attended the downtown courtroom where Kenya Smith is on trial for André's murder. She told The Globe and Mail she was going to court every day, but having trouble remaining in her seat since she learned about the charges against Mark.
Ms. Moore said she was hurt by all of the negative attention Mark and the rest of her family have received. "I do believe the public should wait and see before they judge my son," she said at the time.
She added she had spoken with him after the charges were laid and believes that he is innocent.
"Mark told me, 'Mommy, I don't even care because I know they have nothing on me,' " Ms. Moore said last week.
Ms. Moore is charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder, an accessory after the fact, obstruction of a peace officer and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
She is to appear in court on Thursday, police say.
Constable Tony Vella said police expect to make more arrests soon.
With a report from Carys Mills