Toronto police announced that eight teenage girls have been charged with the stabbing murder of a 59-year-old man. The victim was attacked in the early hours of Sunday at the corner of York Street and University Avenue, in the heart of the most populous city in Canada. The individual received first aid and was taken to a hospital, where he died a few hours later. Three of the minors are 13 years old, another three have already turned 14 and the remaining two are 16. They appeared before a court the same Sunday and remain in custody. The next appointment before the judicial body is on December 29.
Sergeant Terry Browne, a member of the Toronto Police Homicide Unit, reported Tuesday at a press conference that the minors come from different areas of the city and that everything indicates that they met through social networks. “They met in downtown Toronto around 10:30 p.m.,” Browne said, but said it was not yet clear why they met that night. “Right now I wouldn’t describe them as a gang,” he added.
Browne maintained that the facts refer to what the investigators call a “swarm attack”; an assault perpetrated by a group against a passerby for no apparent reason. Some witnesses told the newspaper The Globe and Mail that the adolescents wanted to snatch a bottle of liquor from the victim and, after arguing, the man was beaten and stabbed. The girls were arrested near where the attack took place. Sergeant Browne said several weapons were seized from them, but he did not elaborate. He also commented that the girls had been involved in an altercation earlier the same night.
The murdered man had lived in a homeless shelter for several weeks. Toronto Mayor John Tory expressed his dismay over the case in a statement. “Everyone in our city deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. It saddens me very much to know that a man has lost his life in this way, ”he said. “I am greatly concerned by the young age of the defendants and the number of people allegedly implicated in this murder,” he added.
The stabbing attack in the Canadian metropolis took place just hours after five people were shot to death inside an apartment building in Vaughan, a city located on the outskirts of Toronto. The perpetrator of the crime, Francesco Villi, 73, was shot down by the police. Villi had had a legal dispute for several years with the community of residents of the property. Three of the victims were on the building board.
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