Vaughan shooting suspect Francesco Villi had some disturbing social media profiles
Francesco Villi of Vaughan, Ontario, was an avid social media user before orchestrating a heinous shooting that left six condo residents —himself included — dead, and another victim with serious injuries.
Facebook and Twitter profiles that appear to have belonged to the deceased 73-year-old shooting suspect suggest that he was a prolific poster of photographs, artwork, text-based rants and vlog-style videos before he was shot and killed by police.
His last-ever post to Twitter was published on Dec. 17, two days before Sunday evening's shocking attack, and linked to video footage of Villi speaking to camera while large quantities of mucous run from his nose and down his face.
"I am Francesco Villi, the one and only in Canada. In the morning, as soon as I get up, I lay down. I don't sleep, but I lay down in bed. As soon as I get up, this is what I gotta go through every morning," he says in the video, gesturing to the steady flow of mucous.
"At night this all drips in my chest."
Villi goes on to explain that he is being physically harmed by electromagnetic waves emanating from an electrical room beneath his unit, as he argued when attempting to sue several members of his condominium board for a collective $8.1 million in December of 2020.
"Energy from hydro electricity, it is killing me. When it's gunna touch me here, it's gunna burn me," he says, again gesturing to the fluid leaking from his face. "It burn my flesh… it burned my flesh."
— Francesco Villi (@villi_francesco) December 17, 2022
In the video, which lives on Facebook with a caption reading "Freedom of Speech Expression Liberty Rights," Villi states that he lives in "a dungeon" in Maple, Ontario, at two points calling his unit "Hitler's dungeon."
"Ah it's burning," he says, rubbing the mucuous over his lips and around his chin before the video ends. "It's a Hitler dungeon. This is incredible, unbelievable."
And that is just the tip of what a few scrolls through the shooter's Facebook page will reveal is a very gross iceberg.
Interspersed between images of religious art and lengthy videos in which he complains about the legal process, his health problems and neighbours are photographs of thick, at times bloody sputum in plastic baggies (WARNING: Link contains graphic content.)
Villi has uploaded dozens of videos in which mucous can be seen smeared across or running down his face. He upholds these images as evidence of the health problems he has been suffering for "7 years plus" or "torment, torture, pain" and "suffering."
His final Facebook post was uploaded just hours before the attack, around 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, and once again features a video running about 17 minutes in length.
He claims in this video to be dying, speaks about reincarnation, and rants at length about damage caused to him by a judge who threw out his case against the condo board as "fatally flawed," "frivolous" and "vexatious."
He places a call to a law firm at one point and speaks to an articling student for a very long time about "the way of God," calling himself a "righteous man" who "loves and respects humanity."
He eventually hangs up and turns to the camera, ranting about his legal foes on the condo board, calling them "liars and demons," "indecent bastards," and "criminals."
He yells and shakes the camera at one point when describing his sleep troubles (a side effect of the electrical waves, in his opinion) and screams, "you bastards! You bastard son of a bitches, all of you!"
Additional posts on his Facebook page suggest that Villi may have believed in some conspiracy theories and doomsday prophecies.
"The Storm is imminently Coming to Take most of Humans. Humanity in the deep sea. Oceans Worldwide unaware and Rapidly Murmuring," he wrote on June 6. "Darkness upon and blindness to be reborn."
— Francesco Villi (@villi_francesco) January 20, 2022
York Regional Police confirmed in a media update Monday afternoon that they had responded to an active shooter incident at a condominium building located at 9235 Jane Street just before 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Officers arrived to find "a horrific scene with five deceased victims having been shot and killed in three separate units," according to YRP Chief Jim MacSween.
"There was an interaction between the officers and a 73 old male suspect a resident of that building, who died on the third floor. He's been identified as Francisco Villi. The officer in that interaction is a 24 year veteran of York Regional Police, and he very likely saved lives by his actions last night."
The five deceased victims (two adult males, two adult females) have yet to be publicly identified, though the lone survivor, a 66-year-old woman, is believed to be the wife of a prominent condo board member.
She remains in hospital while investigations are conducted into what happened by both YRP homicide police and Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU.)
"We can say all victims resided in the condo building. Three victims were members of the condominium board. But the motive for the shooting remains part of this very complicated and very fluid investigation, which is still ongoing at this time," said MacSween on Monday afternoon.
"Multiple search warrants are and will be executed... we continue to interview witnesses and until that's complete, we can't rule anything out. But rest assured, detectives in the Homicide Bureau are working diligently to find the answers in this horrible incident."
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