Courtesy of familySlightly more than a year ago, the 19-year-old aspiring pilot was working a night shift guarding a towing lot in northwest Toronto when he died from a single gunshot to the head. Early police suspicions pointed to suicide, and his death was never added to the deadly toll of a turf war that has lasted more than two years, leaving more than 50 trucks torched and taken four lives.After honouring a police request to stay silent about the death for more than a year, Mr.
Since the investigation’s early days, police have abandoned the suicide theory and now say it was more likely a self-inflicted accident. The family state that Mr. Simov worked for Paramount Towing, owned by Alexander Vinogradsky. On Dec. 28, 2019, Mr. Simov started his shift around 7:30 p.m. His task that day was to sit in a vehicle and guard a tow lot on Champagne Drive, an address that has been the target of multiple arson attempts.About two hours after his shift started, Mr. Simov was pronounced dead from a gunshot to the head.
“We didn’t really know all about [the violence],” Ms. Simova told The Globe. “Because if I had known, I would have probably tried to do something to convince him not to work there.” Police have not said whether they believe the gun passed through anyone else’s possession before Mr. Simov obtained it.