Eight teenagers in Toronto were charged with murder on Tuesday after stabbing a 59-year-old homeless man for a bottle of liquor. His name has not yet been released.
Police are calling this a "swarming" attack.
According to the Toronto Police Service news release, the teenagers are all girls aged 13 to 16 years old.
Homicide detective Sgt. Terry Browne told reporters that bystanders flagged down first responders after they found the wounded man.
They transported him to a local hospital, where he was later declared dead.
Browne said the group of girls "met each other through social media. They come from varying parts of the city." He called the killing "shocking" and unlike anything he had investigated before.
We don't know how or why they met on that evening and why that destination was downtown Toronto... I can't recall a situation where eight females have been involved in something like this.
Browne added that police believe the group may have been involved in an "altercation" earlier in the evening before the stabbing and that three of the girls have had "prior contact" with police.
He said the attack lasted only about three minutes.
From CBC:
An alleged "swarming" attack in Toronto started when the eight teen girls charged in the slaying tried to take a liquor bottle from the victim and his friend, the friend says.
That witness, who CBC Toronto has agreed not to name because they belong to a vulnerable community, said she was smoking a cigarette with the man outside a downtown shelter early Sunday when the group of teens approached them and attempted to take her alcohol.
The 59-year-old victim, who police have not publicly identified, told the girls to leave the two of them alone, the woman said.
"He protected me," she added.
That's when the group of girls started to punch him repeatedly, she recalled. Frightened by the violence, she walked away while one of the girls followed her. She said she could see lots of blood.
"Bleeding, bleeding, bleeding. I didn't know if they had a knife or what. I was just scared," she said. "I think they stabbed his belly."
She said she went into the shelter and brought him water afterwards. "I didn't know he would die," she said.
The attack happened around midnight and what I'd like to know is what eight young girls were doing out unsupervised in Toronto so late at night.
Obviously, they were up to no good.
What may have started as trouble turned deadly very quickly, and now these girls have ruined their lives.
I can't imagine what their families must be thinking or feeling.
All eight girls have been charged with second-degree murder.
All eight were together. All eight were involved. I won't say what each one individually did, but all eight were together and participating in this event, which is disturbing.
Very disturbing indeed.
All eight teens appeared in court on the weekend; their subsequent court appearances are scheduled for December 29.
Toronto Mayor John Tory called this attack deeply disturbing.
Everyone in our city deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. I am so saddened to know that a man has lost his life in this way.
I am extremely troubled by the young age of those accused and by the number of people allegedly involved in this murder. My thoughts are with this man's friends and all those who knew him as they mourn his loss.
