There are a couple of anecdotes residents of 50 Tuxedo Court like to tell about Mark Garfield Moore.

In July 2010, his then girlfriend threw him out after a bitter fight. It was the last time anyone saw him but hours later, at night, someone fired a shot through the door of her seventh-floor apartment. (A coat of pink paint tries to cover the spot where the bullet went through but it’s still obvious.)

“It was so crazy,” said a neighbour who declined to give her name. “There could have been just anyone on the other side.”

The shooting was the talk of the building for weeks. On Wednesday, residents gathered to talk about Moore after police revealed they had charged him in four homicides, an attempted murder and a string of other shootings.

Police, who describe Moore as a serial killer, can’t remember the last time someone was charged with four homicides in the city. Or with such reckless gun violence.

Baffled investigators searched for fresh ways to describe “evil” at a news conference Wednesday.

“The callousness of the murders was really shocking,” said Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga. “If these allegations are proven in court, he is an evil man. To rationalize why he did some of the things he did, I’m at a loss . . . I really am.”

Most victims were innocent people and police still haven’t figured out why they were shot. At the time of his arrest, Moore was in custody for a Toronto shooting in March.

Asked if the crimes were committed out of pleasure, Idsinga didn’t hesitate: “Absolutely.”

Cheryl Robb, Moore’s lawyer, said her client laughed when told about the charges. “He is surprised and very confident.”

The lawyer said she has never seen someone charged with four murders and myriad other offences on one day. “Somebody’s desk at 42 Division is very clear,” she said.

So who is Moore, the man police say is the most callous killer the city has ever known, who laughed when told about the charges?

Moore, about 5-foot-11 and heavyset, was born in March 1984, one of four sons of Hyacinth Moore, a single mother. He mostly grew up in Scarborough and his last known addresses were around McCowan Rd. and Eglinton Ave. E.

Before his arrest in March, Moore was a student at a local college but no one seems to know what he was studying.

What is known is that violence ripped apart his family in the past few years.

Moore’s brother, Andre, 27, was gunned down in October 2008. Kenya Smith is charged.

Taimone, a younger brother, survived a shot in the stomach two years ago at age 16 in the parking lot outside a Midland Ave. high school. Jerome, another brother, is in penitentiary on car-jacking charges.

Their mother, Hyacinth Moore, was in the news a few weeks ago when she accused police of leaving a loaded gun in her apartment after executing a search warrant.

Moore, meanwhile, liked to called himself a gangster but wasn’t involved in a gang, investigators said.

At the Tuxedo Court apartment building, a resident remembers Moore flashing handguns while waiting for an elevator. “He was reckless . . . he was clearly showing off,” said the resident who gave his first name as Ron.

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Moore wore gang colours on the streets but there is no indication of gang activity.

But he was definitely involved in rap culture and took part in a YouTube video called Prezidenteeh, “Getting This Money.”

In the seven-minute video, Moore is seen flashing jewellery at the camera and waving $100 bills during scenes shot among friends shooting pool. Expensive liquor can be clearly seen in the background.

Rap producer “Mayhem” Morearty is also in the video. His real name is Kevin Williams and he was arrested along with a woman, Sarah Patsula, in connection with an Eglinton Ave. E. jewellery store heist in August 2010. A clerk was shot in the arm and leg.

Moore faces robbery, weapons and assault charges in that incident.

While police will not say how Moore came to their attention, Idsinga became involved in the probe after he was assigned the case of Carl Cole, 45, shot dead on Greenbrae Circuit in November 2010.

By February, police had identified Moore as a person of interest in that homicide. He was linked to the other three slayings in March.

This summer, police created a task force called Project Summit. While thinking of a nickname, detectives chose Summit partially because of the two m’s in Mark Moore.

As investigators were revealing details of Project Summit to dozens of reporters at police headquarters on Wednesday, detectives told Hyacinth about her son’s arrest and his charges as she arrived at Superior Court to attend the trial of Kenya Smith, the man charged with fatally shooting her son, Andre, in 2008 in the city’s east end.

Hyacinth refused to comment.

Some miles away, Moore appeared in a Scarborough courthouse. He is scheduled to appear again Nov. 21.

With files from Betsy Powell and Emily Jackson