The eight teenage girls, some as young as 13, made contact with one another on social media and may have never met before. But last Saturday night they gathered in downtown Toronto and after getting into one altercation wound up surrounding and fatally stabbing a man in an apparent attack over a bottle of liquor, the police said.
The killing, near the main transportation nexus in Canada’s largest city, was the latest and one of the most brazen episodes in the region in which people have been randomly targeted by groups of young attackers.
The 59-year-old victim was yet to be identified by the authorities. He had been staying in homeless shelters since the fall, the police said, and on Saturday night he was outside a shelter in the Financial District when the suspects set their eyes on him.
The suspects — including three 13-year-olds, three 14-year-olds and two 16-year-olds — appeared to have stabbed him after attempting to steal a liquor bottle from him, Sgt. Terry Browne of the Toronto Police Service told the CBC on Wednesday. All have been charged with second-degree murder.
Eight teenage girls, who ranged from 13 to 16 years old, have been charged with murder in the stabbing death of a 59-year-old man in downtown Toronto. Police said the girls connected on social media before meeting up, possibly for the first time. https://t.co/JPs2Vyshci
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