'It's a vicious cycle'

Detectives make arrest in month-old murder

By JOE WARMINGTON

BRAMPTON -- From the moment 16-year-old Alex Masih was gunned down Aug. 9 outside a townhouse complex here, Peel Police were determined to catch his killer quickly.

"The pure viciousness of this made it obvious whoever was involved had to be taken off the street for public safety reasons alone," Peel homicide Insp. Norm English said.

Police went to work with little help from the public. It seems no one was talking.

"But our detectives were determined," English said. "They worked the street hard."

OUT ON BAIL

And one month to the day, Peel homicide arrested a "well-known to police" 20-year-old not far from the Kennedy Rd. and Williams Parkway murder scene yesterday.

He was already before the courts and on bail charged in a Nov. 9, 2007 convenience store robbery. However, Sept. 9 will be a day that Tristan Francis remembers well. Known as "Shooks," he was arrested in his car in a tactical takedown without incident. Handcuffed, he walked expressionless into custody by Peel homicide detectives.

Francis, who also had a breach of his bail earlier this year, will appear in the Davis courthouse in Brampton today charged with second-degree murder of Masih, who was a basketball player and known by friends as a "class clown." Having this suspect in custody was a relief to English. But not for long. "Our work continues," he said.

"I can assure all of those responsible for this murder will be held accountable."

In the world of guns, drugs and gangs, it never stops for police these days. "It is not lost on police officers that while we were making an arrest in one gang-related case there was potentially another one happening somewhere else," said English, referring to the homicide scene on Hwy. 401 yesterday. "There certainly is no border for their activities. These people operate throughout every jurisdiction."

OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino concurs. "Our officers know this firsthand because finding guns and drugs in cars on Hwy. 401 is a daily occurrence."

And police and the public also know that in most of these violent occurrences the alleged offenders were not new to crime -- and not new to the justice system.

Yesterday's shocking homicide on the 401 is being handled by Toronto Police with assistance from the OPP.

Fantino called it "troubling" and said the way gang warfare has progressed "we are not just seeing shootings but we are seeing executions. That is the difference from before when there would be an incident that was spur of the moment. Now they are planned ambushes. How much more vicious can it get? If we keep doing the same as we have been doing, I guarantee we will get the same result. It's a vicious cycle."

English said the murder of 16-year-old Masih is a prime example of that. "This was a boy who had no criminal record," he said. "He was at the crossroads of what he was going to do with his life and then got caught in this."

He said Masih came from a nice family but could not escape the realities of the gangs he ran into in school and in his neighbourhood.

"He had his whole life in front of him," said English. "He was trying to find his identity and in doing that he may have perceived glamour in associating with certain individuals."

There is nothing glamorous about being shot dead. "And there is also nothing glamorous about being in a gang because eventually you will end up dead or in prison," English said.

"At some point in time people should take notice and put an end to this. The longer those in gangs are allowed to commit the kind of offences they are committing, eventually another innocent person will be victimized.

"The thugs have got to be stopped now. It's a matter of finding a consistent and purposeful system to finally put an end to their reign of terror."

It starts with arrests like Peel Police did yesterday. Today they bring the first person in the slaying of Alex Masih before the courts.

Who knows what, and who, tomorrow brings?