Concert promoter Farouk Musah lived in fear the last four weeks of his life, after a drive-by shooting left a car parked in the driveway of his Richmond Hill home riddled with bullets, his twin brother said yesterday.
By Gay AbbateMan slain in Hummer feared for his life after a car parked at his home was shot up
Prince Musah said his brother considered the incident a threat to his life. The shooting was reported to York Regional Police, but nothing came of it, he said, speaking outside police headquarters on College Street before a scheduled interview with police about the killing.
Farouk, a 33-year-old father of three young girls, was found slumped in the driver's seat of his white Hummer in front of an apartment building near Lower Sherbourne Street and The Esplanade, just after 5 a.m. Sunday. He had been shot several times.
Toronto Police have yet to reveal a motive for the killing.
His brother said he believes it was motivated by jealousy over what Farouk had accomplished, especially organizing Toronto's first Reggae Festival International last month. "He was wealthy and successful," Mr. Musah said.
He denied speculation in news-media reports that his brother's slaying is related to problems at the festival. A popular act did not perform because sound problems delayed the concert's start, and the concert had to end by a certain time to meet a noise bylaw, but Farouk offered angry fans free tickets to another concert, his brother said.
Festival organizers also denied a connection to their event, stating in a news release: "We do not believe that anyone would have a reason to hurt Mr. Musah or any of the other promoters."
Calls to other members of the festival's promotional and management team yesterday were met with disconnected lines or busy signals.
The dead man, who immigrated to Canada in 1992, was also known as Kool C within the city's entertainment industry.
His brother promised that the killer would be found and put behind bars. "We're going to get you regardless of how much it costs," he said, looking directly into a television camera.
He said he planned to tell police that someone living in a nearby apartment building saw the shooting, as did a man who was handing out parking tickets.
He said he received information that the person issuing tickets was parked behind the Hummer and drove off when the shots rang out.
He said his brother was killed by one of two men driving a fairly new champagne-coloured Honda Civic. He said the witness in the apartment building made a note of the vehicle but did not get a description of the two men.
He said his brother may have been followed after leaving a Chinese restaurant at Spadina Avenue and College Street where he had eaten breakfast with a friend. He had dropped his friend off when he was shot, his brother said.
Farouk is thought to have been a key figure with Moonlight Entertainment, a Toronto-based promotion company and one of the co-sponsors of the reggae festival. Its website is under reconstruction, and the festival and a June 17 concert for rapper Elephant Man are the only two events highlighted on its promotional link. The company's phone number is no longer in service.
