Toronto police warn of possible serial killer after two similar murders in five days

Toronto police issued a formal warning to the residents of Rexdale on Monday after two similar stabbings occurred in the area.  

On Monday, Inspector Hank Idsinga told reporters "we are cognizant enough of what has happened over the last week in that area that we feel it is necessary to bring it to the public's attention" and mentioned that if the two recent murders are connected they could be dealing with a serial killer.

The two murders came just five days and five kilometres apart.

The first murder took place in the early morning hours of September 7 just south of Humber College Boulevard near the Highway 27 bridge in Etobicoke. The victim, Rampreet (Peter) Singh, was a 30-something year old homeless man who had been living under the bridge. A jogger found him at around 7 a.m the same day. He had suffered "multiple sharp-force injuries."

The second murder was on September 12 – someone approached and stabbed Mohamed-Aslim Zafis, a 58 year old was volunteering outside of a Mosque near Rexdale Boulevard and Kipling Avenue.

There is no suspect information from the first murder, but a description was crafted from surveillance footage from the second murder. The suspect is described as roughly five foot six and 130 pounds.

Police say due to the proximity of the murders, the cases could be related. Police also confirmed that the victims were of "similar ethnicities."