According to Toronto police, a group of girls between the ages of 13 and 16 has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a 59-year-old man.
Uncertain circumstances surround the killing, which is thought to have occurred Saturday night in downtown Toronto.
According to Canadian police, the killing may have been a horrible example of “swarming,” an apparent trend in which youths surround innocent bystanders and videotape “humiliating and insulting bullying practices” against them.
“At this point, I wouldn’t label them a gang, but what they are claimed to have done that night would be consistent with what we typically refer to as swarming or a swarm-type conduct,” Det.-Sgt. reporter Terry Browne stated.
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the unnamed male had been stabbed.
According to Browne, three of the girls being held are 13, three are 14, and two are 16. The claims that three females had prior encounters with police were made, but Browne provided no information. He claimed that the suspects were armed when they were captured close to the crime scene.
It’s unknown if the girls knew their accused victim, who entered Canada’s homelessness system in the late fall but had an “extremely supportive family” in the country.
Browne remarked, “I wouldn’t necessarily call him homeless, perhaps just on some terrible luck.”
Early on Sunday morning, after being hailed down by onlookers, emergency medical personnel took the sufferer to a nearby hospital.
According to the police, he passed away soon after. His identity was kept a secret until his loved ones could be informed.
According to the authorities, the girls were from various Toronto districts. Although it’s unknown how long they’ve been friends, they met on social media.
The adolescents allegedly engaged in other “criminal activity” before allegedly assaulting the victim, who has not been named.
According to Browne, “We don’t know how or why they met that evening or why the destination was downtown Toronto.”
The suspects’ reappearance in court on December 29 is related to their claimed involvement in the 68th homicide in Canada in 2022.
Juvenile suspects cannot be named because of the nation’s Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Toronto is ranked as the sixth safest big city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Safe Cities Index.
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