Slain conservationist likely targeted, police say

Surveillance video shows man sought by police

Last Updated: Sunday, May 20, 2007 | 1:54 PM ET

CBC News

A Toronto man who donated millions of dollars to wildlife conservation and environmental causes was likely targeted by the assailant who shot him to death, police said Sunday.

Glen Davis, 66, was shot in the torso on Friday afternoon. He was found near his car in the underground garage of a building housing World Wildlife Fund Canada offices in Toronto's north end.

A passerby called for help and Davis was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

"It appears that he was deliberately selected in this case: there were a number of people in that underground parking lot," homicide Det. Wayne Fowler said at a news conference Sunday morning.

Fowler said no wallet was found on Davis, but it wasn't clear that he was shot in the course of a robbery.

"Obviously there was a reason Mr. Davis was selected," Fowler added, without speculating on a motive.

Davis, who was an avid supporter of both WWF Canada and the Sierra Club of Canada, had just finished lunch with someone from the WWF when he was shot, police said.

Davis and his family had made a $2 million gift to the WWF in 2000, the Toronto Star reported.

Police release photos of man seen in lot

Also on Sunday, police released images captured on surveillance video of a man who was seen leaving the parking lot around the time of the shooting.

They show a man wearing a dark jacket, a blue shirt or sweater and dark pants. He is carrying a dark-coloured knapsack.

Police are looking for the man described to be in his mid-to-late 20s as a "person of interest" in the case.

Investigators have also reopened the books on a previous assault on Davis, but they wouldn't disclose specifics until the case file can be examined to see if the two incidents are linked, Fowler said.

News reports of the earlier assault said he was beaten with a baseball bat, but no one was arrested in that case, Fowler said.

A profile of Davis in the 2005 annual report from the Sierra Club of Canada said, "the environmental community in Canada has never had a better friend and supporter."

Davis was involved in a holdings company, but police refused to provide any further details on the victim's background or family, whom Fowler described as being "very devastated."

In Peter C. Newman's 1988 book, Titans: How The New Canadian Establishment Seized Power, Davis is identified as the son of the late Nelson Davis, a "rich and secretive Toronto conglomerateur" whose Toronto house had five unlisted phone numbers.

"If Nelson Davis had one passion besides his never-ending search for perfection, it was his yearning for anonymity," Newman wrote.

"He was a keeper of distances and liked it that way."

On Sunday, police remained at the crime scene and plan to process evidence Monday, Fowler said.

Police hope to identify several people by Tuesday who may be employees of a company at the building where the crime occurred, Fowler said.