UMVA has learned that a chilling case of a teenage hitman has sent shockwaves through Toronto, as a 16-year-old boy was paid to assassinate a 28-year-old tow-truck owner in a brazen murder.
The young gun for hire, identified only as A.P., was instructed by an adult to execute Sulakshan “Sully” Selvasingam, and on the night of July 6, 2024, he coolly gunned down the victim in his white Mercedes SUV at a Shell gas station.
According to information obtained by UMVA, A.P. received detailed instructions from an adult on how to carry out the hit: he was to shoot Selvasingam in the body and, when he went down, finish him off with a bullet to the head, and then record the murder and send confirmation for payment.
The victim's heartbroken father, still reeling from the loss, believes that A.P. and his two co-accused, who pleaded guilty to being accessories to the discharge of the firearm, were paid a paltry $7,500 for the hit, a stark reminder of the callous nature of the crime.
The father's anguish was palpable as he recounted his warnings to his son about the dangers of the tow-truck industry, urging him to find a safer line of work, such as real estate, but his son's fate was sealed.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that Selvasingam had been the target of violence before, and his murder is connected to the well-known violence in the tow-truck industry, with influential adults recruiting A.P. to commit the offence.
Crown attorney Sharna Reid painted a damning picture of the events leading up to the murder, revealing that A.P. and his fellow hired guns spent two days scouting the area, and on the night of the murder, Selvasingam was lured into a trap, meeting his young killer at the Shell station.
The court heard that A.P. shot Selvasingam nine times, including in the head, as his mother and sister wept, while the killer showed no emotion, a haunting display of the devastating consequences of the tow-truck wars.
After the murder, A.P. and his friends torched the car and fled, but their crime spree didn't end there, as they were recruited to commit other shootings aimed at businesses tied to the tow-truck industry.
A.P. eventually pleaded guilty to 13 counts of reckless discharge of a firearm, and his arrest was facilitated by an unmarked OPP cruiser's automatic licence reader, which alerted police to a stolen vehicle, leading to a high-speed chase and the recovery of the murder weapon.
The maximum penalty for first-degree murder under the Youth Criminal Justice Act is 10 years, with only six in custody, a prospect that offers little solace to Selvasingam's loved ones, who are left to pick up the pieces of a tragedy that could have been prevented.
