Police put up sign asking for video, tips about Musitano shooting
Dan Taekema | CBC News | Posted: July 13, 2020 4:15 PM | Last Updated: July 13, 2020
52-year-old mobster was shot and killed in Burlington Friday
The day after Pat Musitano was killed in Burlington a sign appeared next to the parking lot where the notorious mobster was shot to death.
"WITNESS? DASH CAM? CCTV?" it asks, before flashing the number for a police tipline.
It was placed at the location of the fatal shooting by Halton Regional Police who hope the sign will act as a "visual cue" for anyone who might be able to provide information about the shooting, explained Const. Steve Elms.
"We have utilized the sign in previous homicide investigations with success," he added.
Police had no new information to provide about the shooting Monday, according to Elms — underlining the need for cooperation from the community in order to make any headway in the Mafia-related investigation, a type of killing that's traditionally proved tricky to solve.
Investigators confirmed Musitano was killed outside the strip mall at 484 Plains Road East Friday.
Another man, who Mafia expert Antonio Nicaso said is believed to have been the mobster's close friend and bodyguard, was also wounded in the shooting. On Friday police said he was in the hospital in serious condition.
Investigators are searching for a male suspect who fled in a newer model grey four-door sedan "similar to an Infiniti Q50."
The vehicle will have "fresh damage" on the driver's side near the doors, they said.
Now police are asking anyone who was in the area of the shooting between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Friday to contact them or Crime Stoppers.
Musitano, presumed head of the crime family that shared his surname, survived a string of violent incidents before he was killed.
In 2017 his home was shot up and, just over a year before his death, he was sent to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds following a shooting in Mississauga. His brother Angelo was shot to death in 2017.
"He was a dead man walking," said Nicaso, who teaches courses on organized crime at Queen's University.
"In the world of the Mafia, revenge does not lapse. Revenge does not have a statute of limitations."