Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says had no involvement in the murder of Anthony Smith, an alleged member of the Dixon City Bloods gang who posed with him last year in an infamous photo taken in front of a purported crack house.
Ford told The Toronto Sun's Joe Warmington he has grown weary of reporters asking him questions about the shooting that claimed Smith's life last March 28.
"It pisses me off," he told the paper. "I had nothing to do with it."
UPDATE: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is being sued by Scott MacIntyre, a former common-in-law spouse, to Ford's sister Kathy in a 2012 jailhouse beating.
According to police documents released in early December, "Price disclosed that the cell phone containing the recording of interest belonged to the deceased (Anthony Smith) and that it was the motive for his murder."
Police dismissed Price's theory based on "previous interceptions relevant to the murder of Smith."
In those same documents, Ford is alleged to have attempted to purchase the video for $5,000 and a car.
Smith was killed six weeks before news of the crack video broke.
The mayor also told Warmington he had no involvement in the vicious jailhouse beating of his sister's ex-boyfriend and threatened legal action if journalists aren't careful about what they write.
Ford suggested it was a "coincidence" he appeared in a photo, apparently taken outside the notorious 15 Windsor Rd. home, with Smith and another young man, Muhammad Khattak, who was injured in the shooting outside a Toronto nightclub that claimed Smith's life.
Khattack and Monir Kasim, the third man in the photo, were both arrested in the Project Traveller organized crime raids last year.
On Tuesday, charges were stayed against a man who had been accused of killing Smith. The stay means the charges will be off the books in a year but the Crown can reactivate them any time before then.
Hanad Mohamed was originally charged with first-degree murder in Smith's death, but those charges were later downgraded to accessory after the fact to manslaughter, accessory to committing aggravated assault and accessory to discharging a firearm.
A spokesman for the Ministry of the Attorney General told The Canadian Press charges are stayed when there is no reasonable prospect of conviction or if it is not in the public interest to proceed. After reviewing Mohamed’s case, the Crown determined a stay was appropriate.
Nisar Hashimi, who had also originally been charged with first-degree murder in Smith's death, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault in June of last year and is serving a nine-year sentence.
The agreed statement of facts in Hashimi's case said there was "ongoing animosity" between Hashimi and his associates, and members of the Dixon City Bloods gang.
According to the statement, Hashimi pulled out a gun and fired several shots in rapid succession.
With files from The Canadian Press
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