Murder victim Alfredo (Freddy) Patriarca played many roles in his life, including that of a much-loved family man, Toronto police said on Thursday.

“He was a member of the community,” Det.-Sgt. Joyce Schertzer told a press conference. “He was a father. He held many different roles to many different people.”

Schertzer downplayed reports that one of the Etobicoke man’s roles was that of organized crime associate, although she said he was definitely targeted by his killer, who attacked within a minute of his arrival home near The Kingsway and Princess Margaret Blvd. around 6:24 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 20.

“Family was home at the time,” Schertzer said.

Schertzer read a statement from Patriarca’s widow which described him as a “good and giving man.”

“Freddy was a very loving husband and my best friend,” the letter stated. “He was an extremely devoted father who adored his two children.”

The killer took just eight seconds inside his garage to shoot him dead, Schertzer said.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Freddy was the intended target,” Schertzer said.

“The person responsible needs to be found before they do it again,”

she said.

Schertzer said she hoped someone might recognize the killer’s “distinctive gait,” which was captured on video.

She downplayed reports that the victim was connected to organized crime.

“I’m not working that angle at all,” she said. “Mr. Patriarca has never been charged with an offence in relation to organized crime.”

Homicide investigators are combing through 348 hours of video, she said.

A police source earlier told The Star that Patriarca was picked up often on police wiretaps probing the Rizzuto crime family of Montreal during the Colisee probe in the mid-2000s.

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Patriarca survived a shooting in June 2012 during the gangland hit that killed his associate John Raposo, 35, as they sat together on the patio of the Sicilian Café on College St. watching the Euro Cup soccer championships.

Raposo was a close friend of Eddie (Hurricane) Melo, a former pro boxer who was murdered in 2001 outside a Mississauga coffee shop.

Police called Raposo’s murder a “thought-out, planned hit.”