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This wasn’t a video game or a victimless lark; the hired teen assassin was forced to listen to the pain and enduring agony he caused when he gunned down a beloved Pickering tow truck driver.
Does any of it resonate?
The teen killer, who can only be identified as A.P. due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, pleaded guilty in June to first-degree murder in the execution of Sulakshan “Sully” Selvasingam on the night of July 6, 2024, after he was lured to a meeting in the Shell gas station at Warden Ave. and Ellesmere Rd.
According to an agreed statement of facts at his guilty plea, the 16-year-old young gun-for-hire received instructions a day earlier by “influential adults connected to the tow truck industry” who recruited him: he was to shoot Selvasingam in the body and when he went down, finish him off with a bullet to the head. He was told to record the murder and send confirmation for payment.
Court heard A.P. shot Selvasingam nine times, including in the head. The victim’s father believes the shooter and his two 15-year-old accomplices were paid $7,500 for the hit — though that hasn’t been confirmed in court.
A fellow tow truck driver who was a passenger in Selvasingam’s white Mercedes SUV managed to crouch down and survived. But he told the court he is still suffering from fear and anxiety.
At the first day of A.P.’s sentencing hearing — he faces a maximum 10-year youth sentence for murder — Selvasingam’s sister read her victim impact statement as well as one on behalf of her mother.
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‘No courtroom on this earth where my brother will be able to fight for his life’
“It is such a privilege for you that we are in this courtroom today, arguing about whether you deserve to go home to your family and rebuild your life, when there is no courtroom on this earth where my brother will be able to fight for his life, and whether he deserves to be with his family,” said the woman, who is still so afraid that she didn’t want her name published.
“It’s so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that a brutal murderer like you, a killer, could earn such a privilege.”
Her big brother lived for their family, she told Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell. Throughout her years at university, he’d drive her back and forth, help pay for her groceries or cover her rent and was always encouraging her to succeed, predicting that she’d be the first millionaire in their family. He once surprised her and her other brother with a road trip to New York City.
“He was more like a father to me than a sibling,” she explained. “My brother throughout his whole life, from a very young age, wanted to make sure he could provide for me and give me things I never thought I could have.”
She’d been to the site of Selvasingam’s murder once before — they’d stopped there for gas before he drove her back to university and she recalled him giving money to a homeless man. He was her role model, she explained.
‘Feels like you have killed our family’
Her brother was equally devoted to their parents, who fled the civil war in Sri Lanka to build a better life for their three kids.
“Not only have you killed our son but it feels like you have killed our family as well,” wrote his mother in her victim statement. “Even though you won’t face life in prison it feels like my family will because for the rest of our lives, we will be followed by this immense pain and the reminder that we won’t see our son anymore.”
How could he do this, she demanded.
“You wanted such a small amount of money so badly that you were willing to take someone’s life?”
Parts of her daughter’s statement were blacked out — no doubt, because courts don’t want to hear victims lash out at the convicted. “You’ve already taken everything from us. We have nothing left to take.
“We are here for justice for Sulakshan,” she insisted. “We have nothing to do with why you are here and nothing to do with the consequences you will face — that’s all on you.”
But the consequences are so minimal — as a young killer, the most time he faces in custody is six years.
His sentencing hearing continues in October.
mmmandel@postmedia.com