Three February shootings linked to breakup, feud between crime families
Posted Mar 3, 2016 07:00:35 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA — Police are looking into three shootings that happened in the capital in February, as the result of a feud between former lovers and their crime family associates.
Postmedia reports that the shootings are believed to be linked to the breakup of Monika Taing and Michael Gleeson, 28.
Taing is believed to have been the target of the first shooting, at a home on Tremblay Road, February 2.
The second shooting saw bullets fired into a Greco Fitness, on Beech St. near Preston, while it was closed, February 22. Gleeson is one of the owners of that gym.
The third shooting, February 28, targeted the Westboro home of Gleeson’s mother.
Gleeson is currently in jail, awaiting trial on criminal harassment charges. He’s accused of repeatedly communicating with Taing, causing her to fear for her safety. The allegations against him also include text messages threatening to harm Taing, and watching the home of Taing’s parents as well as a restaurant where she was eating.
Gleeson and Taing each have connections to two different crime families in the capital. Gleeson’s business partners in the gym are the children of Benny Manasseri, a well-known business owner who pleaded guilty in 2014 to running an illegal sports betting ring.
Taing is the owner of Maison nightclub in Hull, caught up in a police seizure when the building’s owners were targeted as part of Project Attar. The sting seized property belonging to the Alkhalil family; its five members have been linked to drugs, gangs and bikers.
Taing insisted she was an innocent business owner, and told Postmedia police had said the building’s tenants were not part of the investigation.
