A man once dubbed the Fake Beard Bandit as a suspect in a string of bank robberies and due to be married in three weeks has been charged in connection with a bloody crossbow attack that left three people dead in a middle-class Toronto suburb.
Wearing white coveralls and fumbling with his fingers, Brett Ryan, 35, of Toronto, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder during a brief court appearance. He was remanded in custody until 2 September. Details of the proceedings, including the names of the victims, cannot be reported due to a publication ban.
Police have released few details about the killings or what might have motivated them. The relationship between the accused and the three victims – two men and a woman – is not known.
Ryan lived in an upscale waterfront condo that was evacuated on Thursday after police responded to a report of a suspicious package at about the same time they were dealing with the east-end killings. The two incidents were related, police said, though they offered no details on the link.
In 2008, Ryan was arrested in the case of the Fake Beard Bandit, and charged with numerous counts of robbery, wearing a disguise and possessing dangerous weapons. The charges related to a string of bank robberies in Toronto and nearby Durham region, in which a man showed a teller a note indicating he was armed and demanded cash. In that case, Ryan was arrested after going into a bank wearing a false beard and carrying pepper spray, police said at the time. It was not immediately clear what became of the charges.
Social media profiles show the accused was engaged to a registered physiotherapist. They were to be married in Hamilton on 16 September. The couple, according to their registry page, met three years ago on a blind date in downtown Toronto.
Thursday’s crossbow killings shocked the otherwise tranquil, tree-lined neighborhood as police cordoned off the immediate area.
Vijaya Cruz, whose house backs on to the bungalow where the incident took place, said she was home with her husband on Thursday afternoon when he heard a commotion.
“My husband said he heard some screaming, someone was screaming there,” she said. “Then he said he heard ‘bang, bang, bang’ noise, and then someone was saying ‘calm down.’”
Cruz said she soon saw the flashing lights of a fire truck, which was among the emergency crews that responded to the scene. Police later knocked on her door and told her three people had died in an incident involving a crossbow.