A Fingerprint Gave Them the First Name in Four Days, and It Belonged to a Man From the Same End of the City Where His Car Was Burned: Toronto Police Identify Marcus Charles, 32, and Say Both Victims Were Targeted (September 25, 2026)

The first of the two men burned in cars at opposite ends of Toronto has a name, and police got it from a fingerprint rather than from anyone who came forward. Marcus Charles was 32 and lived in Scarborough — the same end of the city where the first vehicle was set alight. The Toronto Police Service released his identity and an image of him on Friday afternoon, and added a judgement it had withheld all week: investigators now believe both victims were targeted, and that there is no ongoing threat to the public. The second man is still nameless.

What is new

Four things the record did not carry until Friday afternoon. Marcus Charles, 32, of Scarborough is identified as the victim found in the first burned vehicle. He was identified through fingerprints. An image of him has been released. And police have, for the first time, characterised both killings as targeted and told the public there is no broader risk.

A case number has also appeared where there was none: 2026-1994013. Until this release, the Toronto Police Service had published nothing at all on either death, and this site recorded that absence twice. The force has now issued a release on the file — and, separately, a media advisory earlier the same morning at 9:36 a.m.

The identification method is worth pausing on. A fingerprint match means the state already held his prints. It also means four days passed in which nobody who knew him produced an identification that police could act on publicly.

This site’s earlier briefing on the autopsy findings is here: They Were Shot Before the Cars Were Lit (September 25, 2026).

What has not moved

Detective Sergeant Henri Marsman of the Homicide and Missing Persons Unit still will not say the two files are one. Asked directly on Friday, he said that on its face there are a lot of commonalities, but that he has to rely on solid evidence to make that determination and investigators are not at that stage yet. That is a more explicit acknowledgement of the pattern than anything the force said earlier in the week, and it is still not a link.

Investigators are working through video canvass material to establish whether the two are connected. No arrest has been made in either file. The second victim remains unidentified.

The two scenes

The first vehicle burned on Reesor Road, between Steeles Avenue East and Old Finch Avenue, in the agricultural northeast corner of Scarborough, at approximately 11:25 p.m. on Monday, September 21. Marcus Charles was inside it.

The second burned roughly ninety minutes later at James Gardens on Edenbridge Drive, near Royal York Road and Dundas Street West in Etobicoke. The man inside that one has not been named.

The second victim has not been identified by police. No arrest has been made and no charge has been laid in connection with either homicide. No criminal organization, street gang or outlaw motorcycle club has been named by police in connection with either file. Nothing in this file has been tested in court.