Eight teenage girls who appear to have met on social media have been charged with second-degree murder over the death of a 59-year-old man who was stabbed in downtown Toronto.
Investigators allege that the girls assaulted and stabbed the man in a “swarming” attack at a plaza near the main rail station in Canada’s largest city early on Sunday morning.
The man, who had recently moved into the city’s homeless shelter system, was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died, police said.
According to police, the eight girls were arrested near where the attack happened. Three of the girls are 13 years old, three are 14 and two are 16.
The group of teenagers “met each other through social media. They come from varying parts of the city,” Detective Sergeant Terry Browne of the Toronto Police Service Homicide Unit said during a news conference on Tuesday.
“We don’t know how or why they met on that evening and why that destination was downtown Toronto,” Det Sgt Browne said.
“I wouldn’t describe them as a gang at this point but what [is] alleged to have occurred that evening would be consistent with what we traditionally call a swarming,” said Browne.
This is when multiple attackers target a victim simultaneously. A number of weapons were also found with the girls, Det Sgt Browne added.
The suspects appeared in court on Sunday and are due again in court on December 29.
