A coldblooded daylight execution in a bustling mall parking lot—and now, two more suspects have been dragged into the spotlight. Three months after a man was gunned down inside his vehicle at Woodbine Mall in Rexdale, Toronto police have arrested and charged two additional people, weaving a web of conspiracy that stretches across provinces and even into the remote wilds of Northern Ontario.
It was a quiet Wednesday afternoon on February 7, just before 3:30 p.m., when shots shattered the routine of shoppers and employees. Chanda Kumar Raja Nandakumar, a 37-year-old from Brampton, sat wounded in his car. He died in hospital minutes later. Police declared the attack a targeted hit.
“I can understand how a shooting like this, especially at a mall, can cause concern,” Inspector Errol Watson told the press at the scene. The suspects had vanished in a vehicle—no description, no immediate leads, only the chilling echo of gunfire.
On April 30, officers arrested Dyson Taylor, 18, of Brantford, charging him with accessory after the fact to murder. Then came the bombshell on Wednesday: Xzavier Blake, also 18, from Toronto, was slapped with a first-degree murder charge.
But this case was already boiling over. Back on March 3, police announced a Canada-wide warrant for Isaiah Thomas Badger, a 19-year-old from Edmonton. The Calgary Police Fugitive Team snagged him on March 19. He was charged with first-degree murder and hauled back to Toronto on March 27.
Badger’s alleged rampage didn’t stop there. He’s also tied to the killing of Sergio Lopez, 65, of Richmond Hill—found riddled with bullets in a residential neighbourhood near Highway 27 and Langstaff Road on January 26. That shooting was also labeled targeted. The suspects’ getaway car was later discovered abandoned and torched.
Badger now faces additional counts of first-degree murder and arson for Lopez’s death. And bringing the story full circle, earlier in March, OPP officers in the remote James Bay detachment captured Jacob “Baby Face” Wallace, 19, of Mississauga, in the tiny Northern town of Moosonee. He was charged with first-degree murder and arson causing damage in the Lopez case.
Police believe these charges are only the beginning. Anyone with information about the murder of Chanda Kumar Raja Nandakumar is urged to contact the Homicide Unit or Crime Stoppers—an anonymous tip could be the final piece of this violent puzzle.
