Police link suspect vehicle to 4 shootings at GTA cinemas linked to turf war

York Regional Police say the same vehicle was involved in four shootings at cinemas across the Greater Toronto Area that are believed to be connected to a turf war surrounding South Indian-language movies.

On January 24, 2024 officers were called to a theatre in the Highway 7 and East Beaver Creek area in Richmond Hill after an employee showed up to work and discovered the glass doors at the front entrance had been shattered by bullets.

A similar incident took place on the same day at a cinema in Vaughan, near Highway 7 and Weston Road. Two more cinema shootings occured in Toronto and Peel Region on the same night.

Investigators believe the same suspects are responsible for all four shootings, and say they used the same vehicle in each instance.

It's described as a silver 2019 Dodge Ram pickup.

On Thursday police released images and video of the suspect vehicle.

No injuries were reported and the cinemas were all closed at the time of the shootings, which are being linked to a turf war with a group attempting to prevent various South Indian-language movies from being shown in favour of other films.

The frightening gunfire prompted Cineplex to pull a South Indian film.

After the shootings in January, Michelle Saba, Vice President of Communications for Cineplex, told CityNews that "due to circumstances beyond our control," the theatres will no longer present the film Malaikottai Vaaliban.

With files from Lucas Casaletto