Homicide detective hopes witness will come forward with information
A woman clearly seen on security video may hold the key to solving the murder of a popular Toronto party promoter who plunged to his death from a highrise balcony during a home invasion robbery.
“We have a security photo of this female,” said Det. Sgt. Frank Skubic, of the homicide squad. “However it’s not being released at this time as I would like to give her an opportunity to come forward.”
A father of four and well-known in Toronto’s Caribbean community, Egbert Boothe, 43, either fell or was pushed when three masked gunmen burst into a 15th-floor apartment, on Sheppard Ave. W. near Jane St., about 11:30 p.m. last Saturday.
Boothe, who was known to friends as Jah-B and Jah-Bible, had been sharing the apartment with two other men since separating from his wife who lives in Mississauga.
His 3-year-old daughter and son, 19, live in the Toronto area, while another son and daughter, 8 and 11, live in Jamaica, Skubic said.
Last Saturday’s violent robbery began with a knock on the door just before the armed and masked trio forced themselves in.
“Mr. Boothe ran onto his balcony. He was chased by two of the suspects. The third suspect accosted one of the other occupants on the couch of the apartment and made a demand for cash and jewellery. This person put a gun to the victim’s head,” said Skubic.
The third man living in the apartment told police he was in a bedroom when the robbery occurred and he saw nothing. “Within a few moments the two suspects returned from the balcony and vocalized an urgent need to depart from the apartment,” Skubic added. They fled with jewellery and about $200 cash.
About the same time that 911 calls were being made about the robbery and to report a man falling from the balcony, three men were caught by surveillance cameras as they fled from the building’s rear entrance. All three tried to hide their faces, one with his t-shirt, another with his hoodie and the third with his red baseball cap.
The man in the red Montreal Canadiens cap had also been captured on the building’s elevator security camera when he had arrived with a woman about 20 minutes before the home invasion. “I’m not calling these three persons suspects in this case, but their behaviour and their actions, timing-wise to this event, warrants further investigation. Their behaviour appears suspicious as they make efforts to conceal their faces from the security camera,” Skubic said.
The woman riding the elevator was described by Skubic as being black, in her late teens or early 20s with a long black pigtail, wearing a white three-quarter length sweater, black tights and having a brown satchel-type purse on her left shoulder. An autopsy conducted earlier this week showed Boothe died from “multiple blunt force injuries consistent with a descent from a great height”.
His death is Toronto’s 19th homicide of the year.
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