Hamilton police have made two arrests in connection with the 2020 murder of a 42-year-old real estate agent from Stoney Creek, Canada.
Jamal Chemin, 41, and Sorossa Moude, 27, both Toronto residents with links to organized crime, face first-degree murder charges in the killing of Giorgio Barresi, CBC reported.
The murder was financially motivated, and Barresi had no prior acquaintance with the suspects, Detective Sergeant Jim Callender said.
The fatal shooting occurred in Barresi’s driveway in Stoney Creek at approximately 10:45 p.m. on March 2, 2020. Despite paramedics’ efforts to revive him, Barresi succumbed to his injuries at the scene. He left behind a wife and three children.
Barresi’s connections to the Musitano crime family were known, but the murder was not related to other organized crime-related killings in the area during that period, Callender said.
Project Skyfall, a joint initiative involving Hamilton police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police aimed at dismantling a drug trafficking syndicate linked to organized crime groups, led to the recent arrests.
Callender said there could be more individuals with information about the homicide and urged them to come forward. The $50,000 reward initially offered by police in 2021 for information about the murder remains available.
During a press conference, Roberto Bucciarelli, Barresi’s best friend, expressed gratitude to the neighbors who provided CPR after the shooting and supported Barresi’s wife, Sonia Horta-Barres.
“Sonia, what you’ve dealt with, what you witnessed, the severe trauma you’re dealing with — and yet you fight each and every day for your children, for George. You are an inspiration to your children,” he said, according to the outlet.
Real estate agents aren’t killed often, but it does happen from time to time.
Last month, New Jersey real estate agent Irma Daniels, 48, was beaten in the head with a baseball bat on the evening of Aug. 16 at her family’s Cresskill townhouse, the Daily Voice reported. Bergen County prosecutor Mark Musella said John Daniels Jr., 30, was identified by his father as his stepmother’s killer.
Daniels fled the scene, but was later taken into custody, according to the prosecutor. He was charged with murder, hindering apprehension and unlawful weapons position.
Irma Daniels immigrated to the country from southern Russia, where she earned a doctorate from Moscow’s Finance Academy, and held an MBA in marketing.
The real estate agent had worked in the industry for more than seven years. Before recently joining Englewood Cliffs-based Prominent Properties of Sotheby’s International Realty as a realtor associate, she was an agent and salesperson with Keller Williams Town Life in Tenafly.
— Ted Glanzer