Eight teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 16 have been charged with second-degree murder after allegedly “swarming” and stabbing to death a 59-year-old Toronto man, police said.
The attack on the victim, whose identity has not yet been released, took place on 18 December in the York Street and University area of Toronto, Detective Sergeant Terry Browne said Tuesday at a press conference.
“Just after midnight, Emergency Medical Services staff were flagged down by a group of individuals who were reporting an assault that had just occurred,” Mr Browne said, adding that it quickly became apparent that the man had been stabbed. He was transported to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries.
The alleged perpetrators were quickly located and arrested and “a number of weapons” were recovered, Mr Browne said. The suspects made their first court appearance on Sunday to face charges of second-degree murder. Three of the girls are aged 13, three are 14 and two are 16, according to police. Three had previously had “prior contact” with police but the other five had not, Mr Browne said Tuesday.
“What we’ve gleaned so far ... is that they met each other through social media,” he said Tuesday. “They come from varying parts of the city – that is to say, they’re not from one specific geographic location. We don’t know how or why they met on that evening and why the destination was downtown Toronto. We don’t know.”
The detective sergeant added that police did not yet know how long the girls had been acquainted and he would not describe them as a gang – but the attack was “consistent with what we traditionally call swarming or swarming type behavior.”
Mr Browne said the victim had recently moved into sheltered accommodation.
“He does have a very supportive family in the area, so I wouldn’t necessarily call him homeless – maybe just recently on some hard luck,” he said.
A Toronto Police Service spokesman on Wednesday told The Independent that the identity of the victim would be released “once we have ensured supports are put in place for the direct family.”
The suspects were believed to be in the area by at least 10pm on 17 December and believed to have been involved in a separate altercation, Mr Browne said, appealing for any information or video footage from the area on the night in question.
The attack took place on the same day that a 73-year-old Toronto man shot and killed five people at a suburban condo before police shot him dead.
