Toronto police have laid charges against Vakhtang Makhniashvili, father of missing teen Mariam, following a double stabbing on Thursday.
The incident took place in a residential area near 10 Greenwood Ave., which is just north of Queen Street East, police say.
A person witnessed the incident and called police at 11:52 a.m.
One person, stabbed in the abdomen, had to be taken to hospital and underwent surgery. A second person's injuries weren't as severe. Police said neither person suffered life-threatening injuries.
CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss, reporting from the scene, said a man went to the residence and knocked on the door, got into an altercation with the residents, at which point two people were stabbed.
A large amount of blood could be seen on the sidewalk in front of the home, along with the home's front steps, he said, adding a knife has been recovered by police.
"It was pretty wild. There was a good dozen cops here," witness Ron Baird said.
Toronto police said in a news release late Thursday afternoon that Makhniashvili, 50, has been charged with the following:
- attempted murder
- aggravated assault
- failure to comply with a recognizance
He is to appear in court on Friday morning. Police transported him from 55 Division to cells in 51 Division to be closer to court.
Makhniashvili lives on Roehampton Avenue in the Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue East area.
He had been out on bail following a May incident in his former Shallmar Boulevard apartment building that left a man with stab wounds to the abdomen.
Vakhtang has essentially been under house arrest since that incident and is to receive care from a forensic psychiatrist.
Sources tell CTV News that the victims may be people who acted as sureties for Makhniashvili in a bail application for his previous brush with the law, but who then pulled their support.
Bliss said police are trying to determine a motive.
Vakhtang's daughter Mariam went missing on Sept. 14, 2009. Other than her school backpack being found three weeks later, there has been no trace of her.
The May incident occurred on a day a body had been found in a northeast Toronto park.
Strains showed in the Makhniashivili household earlier this week when Vakhtang's son Giorgi (also known as George), went missing for most of a day.
"Well, it was quite a hell," Vakhtang told reporters on Tuesday.
He explained this son's absence as being related to parent-child disagreements on priorities. George wanted to focus on music while his father and mother, Lela Tabidze, wanted their son to focus on his studies.
A neighbour said Vakhtang, Lela and George left the apartment at 8 a.m. Thursday. Lela and George returned home about 5 p.m., but wouldn't speak to reporters.
Calvin Barry, Vakhtang's lawyer, said his client is under incredible stress.
No allegations against Vakhtang have been proven in a court of law.
Mariam's story
George and Mariam came to Toronto in June 2009 from the Republic of Georgia to reunite with their parents, who had spent the previous five years working in the United States.
She walked to Forest Hill Collegiate Institute on the morning of Sept. 14, 2009 with George. She broke off from him to go in a different door that was closer to her first class. That is the last confirmed sighting of the girl, who would be 19 this Oct. 27.
Police have searched intensively for Mariam.
They conducted aerial searches of Toronto parks north of the family's former building and went to the extraordinary length of having officers conduct visual searches of the insides of thousands of nearby residences -- and also checking the garbage to see if anyone tossed out evidence in a panic.
The only evidence that has ever been found was the backpack she carried to school. It was located, still filled with books, at 120 Eglinton Ave. E., about two kilometres east of her school.
That discovery came about three weeks after she disappeared, but since then, no clues have surfaced. A reward hasn't helped generate any solid leads.
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said the Mariam Makhniashvili case is one of the toughest missing-persons investigations his officers have ever faced.
Vakhtang said he clings to the hope that his daughter is alive and being held against her will.
With files from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss and John Musselman
