The notorious crack video of Mayor Rob Ford was the motive for the murder of alleged gang member Anthony Smith, Toronto Police were told last May.

Newly released documents reveal that this information surfaced in the early days of the scandal, in statements to police detectives from Ford’s loyal “logistics director,” David Price, and former chief of staff Mark Towhey. 

In one staggering claim, the police document states:

“Price disclosed that the cell phone containing the recording of interest belonged to the deceased (Anthony Smith) and that it was the motive for his murder,” the police document states, referring to claims Price made May 17. 

Smith, 21, was shot dead on King St. W. on March 28, as part of a gang dispute. 

“Price stated that the male (Smith) died because of the phone,” the police documents state. 

According to police information disclosed Wednesday, “this theory is not correct based on previous interceptions relevant to the murder of Smith.” 

Whether there is any merit today to this murder case connection and other claims Price and Towhey made in the early days of the scandal is unknown, as Toronto police will not talk about their investigation. 

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Read the released police documents

The public has only been told that Smith’s murder was connected to an ongoing dispute between two rival groups of young men. 

Smith, who police say was a member of the Dixon City Bloods, was gunned down six weeks before news of the crack video surfaced. 

He was shot dead March 28 near the Loki Lounge.  Another man, Mohamed Khattak, was injured in the shooting.  Smith, Khattak and a third man are pictured in a photo with Ford taken outside the Etobicoke house where the crack video was filmed on a cellphone in February, described in the police documents as a crack house. 

The allegations in these Toronto police documents have not been tested in court. 

The newly released portions of the previously censored documents are part of an application for a search warrant of Ford friend Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, who faces charges of extortion in connection with his alleged attempt to retrieve the embarrassing video that shows his friend, the mayor, smoking crack cocaine and making homophobic and racial slurs.  The Star does not know if Lisi acted on his own or if someone told him to track down the video. 

The new documents explain what happened on May 17, the morning the news of the crack video was published on the front page of the Toronto Star. 

As the Star has previously reported, media had descended on Ford’s house, and Price and Lisi, in separate cars, were running interference for him. 

Price received a phone call while he waited for Ford to leave his home.  The call, the documents say, was one of two Price would get that day from an anonymous person he felt was clearly a “supporter” of the mayor.  Price told Towhey about the calls later that day, and Towhey reported them to police.  Accounts of the calls differ slightly, with Towhey’s recounting of what Price heard slightly stronger than what Price eventually relayed to police. 

At around the supper hour on May 17, Towhey told police he had been approached by Price with news of the two calls.  Towhey was interviewed about Price’s claims the next day by homicide detectives Sgt.  Gary Giroux and Det.  Joyce Schertzer the next day.  Shertzer was investigating the Smith death and by that time had one man in custody, charged with first-degree murder.  That man has since pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, manslaughter, and was sentenced to nine years in prison.  A second man’s trial is pending. 

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Price told Towhey that the person who called him twice that day knew the crack video existed and said that “Somali drug dealers” had it at an address in north Etobicoke.  Price said the caller told him it was Smith’s phone and it was the “motive for the murder.” 

Towhey said he told Price not to talk to Ford about this, and that he would be calling the police, which he quickly did.  Towhey recalled that Price was “a bit uncomfortable” that he would have to talk to police. 

Just as Price arrived at police headquarters to be interviewed, George Christopoulos, then communications director for the mayor, texted him an address — 320 Dixon Rd.,  unit 1703 — “as the location of the cell phone with the video recordings,” the police document states. 

What Price did not tell Towhey is that earlier that day, he had driven to the Dixon area and attempted to speak to the Basso family, who lived at 15 Windsor Rd. —  the house where the video was recorded and the photograph of Ford and Smith taken.  Price later told police that when he saw the photograph in the newspaper he recognized the house as belonging to the Bassos.  One of the house’s residents, sister Elena Johnson — a Ford friend with a criminal record for drugs and prostitution — was not happy to see him when he visited and told him nothing. 

The accounts of the police interviews with Price and Towhey reveal that detectives learned that the unknown caller said two men had the video: one nicknamed “Gotti,” the other nicknamed “D.” A phone number was given to Price.  When police checked the number, they found a connection to Mohamed Siad.  Siad is the man who tried to sell the video to the Star, with the aid of another man, Mohamed Farah. 

Price told police the caller was male, with no accent, and “Canadian born.” 

In Towhey’s account of Price’s two calls, Towhey told police that Price said he learned it was Smith’s phone that recorded the video.  However, Price’s account, in an interview some time later, states “the caller never stated” the phone belonged to Smith. 

The anonymous caller told Price he was not comfortable speaking to police.  Instead, he wanted to relay the information to the mayor’s office. 

Also released in the new batch of documents from the search warrant are comments from Christopoulos, who told police that on May 17 Ford talked to him about the video — a video Ford was denying existed. 

“The Mayor told (Christopoulos) that he learned that the video that everyone was talking about, if it existed, might be at the address 320 Dixon Road apartment 1701 or 1703,” the documents state. 

How much Mayor Ford knew about his staffers talking to detectives is not clear.  Towhey told police he did not tell Ford.  Price was told not to talk to the mayor, but he did speak to Councillor Doug Ford (Price called him his “best friend”) to give him a “heads up” he was going to talk to police the day after the crack video story broke. 

Doug Ford’s response: Ahh, f--- Dave.” 

“He was not angry that Price was speaking to the police, he just really wanted to move forward and put this scandal behind them,” according to the police account of Price’s interview with detectives. 

Several days after Price passed on the Dixon Rd.  apartment numbers to police, there was a shooting — which resulted in one person being wounded — just outside apartment 1703.  Price told police he found that news “sobering.”