8 Teenage Girls Charged With Second-Degree Murder After Fatally Stabbing Toronto Man
During the early hours of December 18th, just after midnight, a man in Toronto, Canada was drinking from a bottle of alcohol with a friend, when they were approached by eight teenaged girls. The teens demanded he give them their drink, and when the man refused, they began to repeatedly stab him. The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital where he unfortunately succumbed from his injuries.
Shortly after the attack, the suspects were located, taken into custody, and charged with second-degree murder. According to Toronto police, three of the girls are 13, three of them are 14, and two of them are 16. CNN has reported that the teens live in different parts of Toronto and met online through social media, but that the length of their friendship has yet to be determined.
“We don’t know how or why they met on that evening, and why that destination was downtown Toronto,” Detective Sgt. Terry Browne of the Toronto Police Service Homicide Unit said in a conference. He later stated that police believe that the group of teens may have been involved in a separate “altercation” earlier in the evening, prior to the stabbing. Browne continued to explain that he doesn’t consider the group to be a gang or involved in gang activity, but referred to the attack as a “swarming.”
“I’ve been in policing for almost 35 years and you think you’ve seen it all,” Browne said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Anyone who isn’t shocked with hearing something like this has clearly just thrown in the towel and just said that anything is possible in this world. Eight young girls and most under the age of 16. If this isn’t alarming and shocking to everyone, then we’re all in trouble quite frankly.”
The name of the victim will not be released until his next of kin can be contacted. Browne mentioned that the man had been living in a homeless shelter since fall, making it difficult for authorities to locate his family. The identity of the suspects will remain hidden by Canadian authorities, due to them being minors, but Toronto police has stated that three of the girls have “had prior contact with police” before.
