Toronto: Eight teenage girls charged with deadly stabbing - BBC

Eight teenage girls person been charged with execution successful the Saturday nighttime stabbing of a 59-year-old antheral successful downtown Toronto, authorities said.

Police said the girls, aged betwixt 13 and 16, look to person met online earlier gathering successful idiosyncratic connected the nighttime of the attack, perchance for the archetypal time.

They were arrested adjacent the transgression country soon aft midnight connected Sunday.

The man, who has not been named, had been surviving successful a structure for the stateless astatine the clip of the assault.

"He does person a precise supportive household successful the country truthful I wouldn't needfully telephone him homeless, possibly conscionable precocious connected immoderate hard luck," Toronto Police Detective Sergeant Terry Browne told reporters.

Officer Browne said the girls are believed to person assaulted and stabbed the unfortunate successful Toronto's downtown core, an country filled with high-end condominium towers and hotels, pursuing an altercation. Police judge the antheral whitethorn person been preyed upon due to the fact that helium was spotted carrying alcohol.

A radical of bystanders flagged down exigency services aft uncovering the antheral with stab wounds, Mr Browne said. The antheral was rushed to a adjacent infirmary with superior injuries and died soon after. Police recovered respective weapons, but did not accidental precisely which type.

Police said the teenagers "swarmed" the man, adding the onslaught was a prolonged "back and forth" connected the unfortunate involving each 8 of the teenagers.

"The existent incident, proper, lasted astir 3 minutes long," Mr Browne said. "So, walked away, walked toward, walked away, walked toward."

The onslaught came conscionable hours before a wide shooting successful Vaughn, Ontario, a tiny metropolis conscionable extracurricular of Toronto. The abrupt unit has unnerved immoderate successful Toronto up of the holidays.

Police person not called the teenage girls a gang. The "anomaly" of this attack, Detective Browne said, is that the girls each came from antithetic parts of the metropolis and did not look to person met successful idiosyncratic anterior to the attack. Three of the girls had anterior run-ins with police.

"We don't cognize however oregon wherefore they met connected that evening," helium said.

A pistillate nonmigratory of a adjacent stateless structure told the CBC the unfortunate was stabbed successful the tummy aft trying to support her erstwhile the girls approached her for alcohol.

"I didn't cognize if they had a weapon oregon what. I was conscionable scared," the pistillate said, explaining however she walked distant from the attackers and sought refuge successful the shelter.

In a statement, Toronto Mayor John Tory said helium was "deeply disturbed" by the case.

The accused volition present walk Christmas successful jailhouse arsenic they await a 29 December tribunal appearance. None of the suspects tin beryllium identified nether Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act but constabulary said 3 of the suspects are 13 years old, different 3 are 14, and 2 are 16.

Investigators judge the girls whitethorn person got into different fights connected Saturday evening and person appealed to the nationalist for much information.