‘Cameras would be everywhere’
Security firm founder confident gunman who shot rapper Drake’s security guard will be caught
The founder of a high-end security firm says he’s confident the early morning shooting attack on rapper Drake’s security guard will be solved.
“Lots of people talk when they do something to a celebrity and it will get out, and they will get caught,” says Emmanuel (Manny) Mounouchos, the founder of Avante Security.
A publicist for the 37-year-old Toronto musician had no comment Tuesday after the shooting outside his luxurious Bridle Path mansion left a security guard in life-threatening condition.
Toronto police say the unidentified guard was rushed to hospital shortly after they received a call around 2 a.m. Tuesday. On Wednesday, the man was still in hospital and police had no updates on his condition.
Insp. Paul Krawczyk of the Integrated Gun and Gang Task Force said the guard was in front of the house when he was shot from inside a vehicle.
Krawczyk confirmed the shooting and the suspect vehicle were captured on video, but did not release suspect or vehicle descriptions at a news conference in front of the rapper’s home on Tuesday, saying investigators were dealing with “video quality issues” and may have more information once they’re able to analyze the video.
Avante has plenty of clients in Drake’s well-heeled Bridle Path neighbourhood, but doesn’t work with the rap superstar, whose birth name is Aubrey Graham.
Mounouchos noted there are plenty of security cameras in the high-income neighbourhood. “Cameras would be everywhere,” Mounouchos said.
“If they are pros, they would steal a car to do this,” Mounouchos said.
Luciano Cedrone, spokesperson for the Security Guard Association of Ontario, said the shooting raises a broader discussion of the challenges faced by security guard workers and the lack of resources to protect them.
He said security guards deal with a lot of the same issues police respond to, including calls related to mental health and people experiencing homelessness.
“Everything that police deal with, I would suggest, is magnified in the security world because they don’t have the protections, nor the training or the police equipment.”
Cedrone said the situations that security guards encounter are becoming increasingly violent, noting at least three security workers in Ontario have been killed in the last year.
That includes Michael Ferdinand, the 34-year-old security guard who was shot inside the Pickering Casino Resort on Oct. 9.
Cedrone said a situation like the one outside Drake’s home is not common but also cautioned that the details of what happened and who the security guard was are not yet clear.