MANDEL: High school hitman hired by 'influential adults' waging Toronto's tow-truck war
· Toronto Sun
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He was a hired high school hitman in Toronto’s escalating tow-truck wars.
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Just 16, the young gun for hire was paid to assassinate Sulakshan “ Sully ” Selvasingam, and on the night of July 6, 2024, he coolly gunned down the 28-year-old tow-truck owner in his white Mercedes SUV at the Shell gas station at Warden Ave. and Ellesmere Rd.
According to an agreed statement of facts at his guilty plea to first-degree murder, the teen — who can be identified only as A.P. — received instructions from an “adult” a day earlier on how to execute his target: he was to shoot Selvasingam in the body and when he went down, finish him off with a bullet to the head. He was told to record the murder and send confirmation for payment.
Outside court, the victim’s heartbroken father said he believes the teenaged contract killer and his two co-accused, who pleaded guilty last week to being accessories to the discharge of his firearm, were paid just $7,500 for the hit — though the agreed statement made no mention of the fee.
He blamed Selvasingam’s “business competitors” who hired kids to do their dirty work.
“Somebody paid money for them to kill my son,” said the dad, who still lives in fear and didn’t want his name used.
Father wanted son to find safer line of work
His eldest owned his own truck but his father urged him to find a safer line of work, such as real estate.
“We heard every day they burn tow trucks, they shoot at tow truck drivers, so many things. I said, ‘Don’t do that. This is very dangerous job,'” he recalled telling him.
Three months before his murder, his son assured him he was giving it up.
Crown attorney Sharna Reid said Selvasingam had been the target of violence before.
Slaying connected to ‘well-known violence’ in industry
“His murder is connected to the well-known violence in the tow-truck industry,” she told Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell. “Influential adults connected to the tow truck industry recruited A.P. to commit this offence. They had access to firearms and were prepared to engage in retaliatory violence within the towing industry.
“A.P. believed that they would not hesitate to harm their perceived enemies, including those who had been previously aligned with them. These adults use young persons, including A.P., by offering him a sum of money to carry out the murder of Mr. Selvasingam.”
A.P. and his fellow hired guns were in stolen vehicles as they spent July 5 and July 6 scouting the area near Kennedy Rd. and Hwy. 401 in search of A.P.’s target, the prosecutor said.
On the night he was killed, Selvasingam was at a car meet at Kennedy Commons plaza with a friend. They left at 10 p.m. to get food but Selvasingam said he first needed to make a quick stop to meet someone. He drove into the Shell station and parked driver’s side to driver’s side to A.P.’s stolen white Honda Civic.
It was an unwitting rendezvous with his young killer.
“Mr. A.P. shot Mr. Selvasingam nine times, including in the head,” Crown attorney Sharna Reid said, as Selvasingam’s mother and sister wept, and the killer, now 18, showed no emotion at all.
Torched car, then fled
After the murder, A.P. and his two friends met up in Uxbridge where they threw the Honda’s stolen licence plates down a sewer drain, torched the car and fled in a stolen black Acura.
The same adults who hired him to kill also recruited him to commit other shootings aimed at businesses tied to the tow truck industry, Reid said. A.P. pleaded guilty to 13 counts of reckless discharge of a firearm between May and July 2024 at various locations, including two cinemas, an auto collision centre and a towing company.
“The young persons involved were instructed to record the shootings for proof of completion of the offences,” Reid said.
A.P. and one accomplice were caught July 15 after an unmarked OPP cruiser’s automatic licence reader alerted police to a stolen 2020 Dodge Charger on the 401. A.P. crossed several lanes to exit at Keele St., went through a red light and when police tried to box him in, he and his passenger fled their moving vehicle. On his arrest, a loaded Glock 23 .40 calibre handgun fell to the ground from A.P.’s satchel.
“The firearm was the firearm used to kill Mr. Selvasingam nine days earlier,” Reid said.
A sentencing date hasn’t been set. Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the maximum penalty for first-degree murder is 10 years — with only six in custody.