Man convicted of shooting up Brampton strip mall is now on the run

A man convicted of spraying bullets into a Brampton strip mall as a ploy to distract police from a smash-and-grab at a nearby jewellery store has slipped away and is now on the run, CTV News has learned.

Peter Mitsakis, 32, was convicted on eight counts including reckless discharge of a firearm for his role in the scheme to send police looking for an active shooter instead of responding to the robbery, where a tow truck smashed into the store.

Before he could be sentenced, Mitsakis took off his ankle monitoring bracelet and disappeared, according to Ontario Superior Court Justice Andras Schreck. Schreck didn’t let that stop him from sentencing Mitsakis to more than six years in prison for his role in the scheme.

But Mitsakis won’t serve a day in prison if police can’t catch him, observers said.

“He may be on a beach, or in some non-extradition country or he might be sitting right in the GTA and no one can find him,” said criminal lawyer Ari Goldkind in an interview.

“If he is found and if he does not have a good reason — I say that wink-wink, nudge nudge — for not showing up for the sentencing and end of his trial, the fail to appear legislation could suggest that he will face a very significant sentence,” Goldkind said.

It’s not the first time Mitsakis has been on the run. Video released by the court to CTV News shows an extraordinary raid on the alleged clubhouse of the Chester Le gang back in 2019.

Two men at the front of the clubhouse drop to the ground as police emerge, pointing their weapons. Two men can be seen jumping out of a minivan and scampering towards the back of the property.

One of them was Mitsakis, Schreck found. The evidence filed in the case shows his pants got stuck on a fence and he took them off to get away — surveillance videos show him jogging in his underwear through back alleys.

The raid was one part of Project Kraken, a GTA-wide investigation into tow truck related organized crime, police said back in 2019, as they announced 73 people would face almost 600 charges.

Among the guns shown at the press conference then was a gun that was found near the tan pants, a loaded handgun with an overcapacity magazine.

“It is alleged that some of the firearms before you were used in the robberies committed,” said Toronto Police Chief James Ramer at the time.

Video filed in the case shows the tow truck slamming through the glass front of a Brampton jewellery store, followed by men wearing face masks streaming inside and smashing the cases with hammers.

Blocks away, another video shows a man in tan pants and a green hoodie shoot three times into a Brampton strip mall during the day to scramble police to that location instead.

“The reason Mr. Mitsakis did this was to distract the police so that others could rob a nearby jewellery store,” Schrek wrote. “This robbery was carried out as planned and approximately $276,000 worth of jewellery was stolen.”

Officers matched the pants and the gun to the man in the video, and DNA on the pants matched Mitsakis, the judgment says.

Michael Rombis, who represented Mitsakis at trial, said he put up a vigorous defense but ultimately the facts presented by the crown were difficult to argue against.

He said that following the conviction there was a “breakdown in the solicitor-client relationship” and he brought an application to be removed as Mitsakis’s lawyer.

“Since the date of the hearing I’ve had no contact or communication with Mr. Mitsakis whatsoever,” Rombis told CTV News.

According to the court records, Mitsakis is 32 years old with a sporadic employment history and criminal record for failing to provide a breath sample, driving while disqualified, and uttering threats and mischief.

Mitsakis was convicted on May 13, and Crown lawyers applied unsuccessfully at that point to have his bail revoked. He was out on a condition that he reside at a specific address and wear an ankle bracelet monitoring device.

On July 22, Recovery Science Corporation, which monitored the bracelet, contacted the police to warn that it had been removed. Two police officers found the bracelet, but he was nowhere to be found. An arrest warrant was issued but Mitsakis remains on the run.

Toronto Police didn’t respond to questions about what efforts are being made to find Mitsakis, and Recovery Science Corporation didn’t return calls.