Some residents on Dunvegan Road in Toronto’s affluent Forest Hill are shaken after two violent incidents apparently targeting the same house in the last month. The street is home to some of Canada’s wealthiest families.
According to police, the latest incident happened sometime after 10 p.m. on July 21 and before 5 a.m. on July 22. Police were called to the street by a security company that monitors homes in the neighbourhood.
“The call was basically that in the early morning hours, security had reported sounds of potentially firecrackers,” said Supt. Scott Baptist, unit commander of 53 Division that oversees the area.
“A follow up investigation has turned out that there were a number of shots fired.”
Numerous bullet holes can still be seen in the doorway of 120 Dunvegan Road.
A month earlier, on June 21 around 2 a.m., three men set a luxury SUV on fire after dousing it in gasoline.
No one was hurt in that incident either, but police alerted the public and released security video a few weeks later.
In the video, the Land Rover can be seeing blowing up after another video shows the suspects fleeing in what appears to be a flatbed work truck.
Neighbours said the house belongs to Mark Valentine, who is listed on LinkedIn as the president of venture capital firm Q Capital Corp.
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Valentine is also a convicted white collar criminal.
He was arrested in Germany in 2002 in connection with the joint RCMP-FBI investigation known as “Bermuda Short.” Two years later, he pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud and was sentenced to four years probation and nine months of house arrest.
Baptist would not comment on the investigation except to say it’s ongoing, and that police aware of the recent criminal activity and will be paying extra attention to the neighbourhood.
He added there is no evidence to suggest that the violence is escalating.
“We’ve had two occurrences and we’re looking into the causes of it,” he said, adding he could not speculate if the homeowner was targeted.
Valentine did not respond to a Global News request for comment.