Toronto police detectives interviewed a senior staff member from Mayor Rob Ford’s office a week ago in relation to allegations involving the widening crack video scandal.

Though two senior homicide detectives conducted the interview, the information they were seeking does not relate to a murder investigation, a police source confirmed.

Toronto Police sent homicide detectives because they wanted senior detectives experienced in conducting sensitive interviews, not because a murder was involved, police confirmed to the Star.

The interview came days after the story the Star published detailing the video seen by two Star reporters and the editor of Gawker. The Star reporters have described seeing a video showing an incoherent and rambling Ford smoking what appears to be a crack pipe and making homophobic and racially charged statements. The reporters were shown the video by a man who said he shot it on an iPhone. The reporters watched the video three times in a car parked near a Rexdale apartment complex.

After the police interviewed the top staffer, and as the scandal grew, there was a shooting reported in the same apartment complex where the Star viewed the video. News of that shooting alarmed people in the Mayor’s office. The person, a man in his mid-20s, was shot in the leg in an apartment on the 17th floor. He is recovering in hospital.

A Toronto police source, speaking on background, said the interview of the top staffer (which happened prior to the shooting) was not related to the shooting.