Barber shop shooting surveillance video released

Police released a surveillance video Friday that shows a man calmly walk to the door of a Scarborough barber shop and remove what they say is a shotgun from his bag seconds before Chris Thompson was shot dead.

Thompson, 35, was shot and killed Tuesday inside the Cut Creator barber shop at 31 Tapscott Road in the Malvern Town Centre. Thompson was shot at close range as he gave a customer a haircut.

The 40-second video released Friday shows from a distance a man walk up to the door of the barber shop. He stops outside, removes what police believe is a shotgun from his bag, then heads inside.

The video shows him exiting a little over a minute later and running away, heading northwest across the plaza parking lot toward McLevin Avenue.

"It is during that minute and 15 seconds that he brutally murders Christopher Thompson," said Det. Sgt. Dan Nielsen while playing the video at a press conference on Friday.

Thompson was pronounced dead at the scene.

"This was a very ... cold-blooded crime," Nielsen said.

"The shooter was very discriminating. There were no other people shot. It’s very clear that he was targeting Chris."

Nielsen said he hopes showing the video may jog the memory of witnesses who were in the area around the time Thompson was shot.

"I still don't know what the motive is in this case but I know there's other witnesses out there that can assist us in this investigation," he said.

Police believe the suspect is a male who is five-foot-eight-inches to five-foot-ten-inches tall, with a slim to medium build. His face was partially concealed when he entered the barber shop. He wore a dark jacket, dark pants and a light- or grey-coloured sweat top.

Charm Marsh, a cousin of Thompson's, attended Friday's press conference and spoke on behalf of the family.

She asked that the person responsible for Thompson's death come forward.

"You had no right to shoot this person and take him out of our lives," she said. "We have an entire family that's grieving. You need to come clean so we can have some kind of closure as a family."

Thompson was the father of two children: a 15-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl.

Nobody is going to walk his daughter down the aisle, his son doesn't have no hero anymore," said Marsh. "You just messed with somebody that was loved, he wasn't just some guy."

The family was to hold a vigil for Thompson on Friday evening, at the scene of the shooting.

Thompson is Toronto's fifth homicide victim so far this year.