Police release video of barbershop murder suspect
Toronto police released surveillance video Friday of a male suspect in the moments before and after he killed a barber in a brazen daylight shooting Tuesday afternoon.
Chris Thompson, a 35-year-old father of two, was repeatedly shot at close range by a masked man inside Cut Creator, a barbershop in Malvern Town Centre's lower plaza.
The video clip shows the suspect calmly walking up to the shop and removing a shotgun from a bag before entering the business. The second part of the clip shows the suspect exiting the store, scooping the bag off the ground and running through a parking lot.
"It's during that minute and 15 seconds he brutally murders Christopher Thompson," said Det. Sgt. Dan Neilsen as police played the clip for reporters at a news conference.
Neilsen said police released the clip in an attempt to "refresh" the memories of people who were in the area at the time and may have noticed the suspect.
He said investigators want to hear from people who saw the man.
Gunman 'took out a whole family,' cousin says
Reporters at the news conference also heard from Charm Marsh, one of Thompson's cousins.
Marsh said her family is struggling to understand why someone would kill her cousin because he was a kind man, a supportive husband and good role model.
"You had no right to shoot this person and take him out of our lives," Marsh said. "You didn't just shoot a man or some guy. You took out a whole family and a whole community."
On behalf of her family, Marsh urged the suspect to "come clean" and turn himself in to police.
Marsh said the family is setting up a trust fund for Thompson's children, who will now grow up without their father.
"Nobody is going to walk his daughter down the aisle," Marsh said. "His son has no hero around him anymore."
Vigil planned
Marsh said everyone is welcome to attend a vigil outside Cut Creator on Friday at 7 p.m.
Thompson, an employee of the barbershop for 16 years, was cutting a customer's hair when he was targeted in a homicide described by police as a "cool and cold-blooded crime."
Without saying anything, the suspect repeatedly shot Thompson and then ran north from the scene through a parking lot at 31 Tapscott Rd.
At least two customers who witnessed the execution-style slaying fled the shop before officers arrived. Police previously urged those patrons to contact investigators and provide a statement.
Neilsen said police have interviewed some witnesses, but they still haven't heard from the customers.
He said police don't know the motive for the killing, which was Toronto's fifth homicide of 2012.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 416-808-7398 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
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