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8 Teenage Girls Charged in Stabbing Death of Toronto Man

Police say the 59-year-old victim was “swarmed” and stabbed in the city’s downtown by a group of girls who met over social media.
Police say a group of teenage girls “swarmed” a  man and stabbed him to death in downtown Toronto.
Toronto Police car on Friday, February 4, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Dominic Chan.

Police say a group of teenage girls “swarmed” a man and stabbed him to death in downtown Toronto. 

The unidentified man, 59, was living in a shelter and police are still notifying his next of kin. Police said the man was rushed to hospital with stabbing injuries Sunday morning, where he died of his injuries. 

“It was learned early on that the suspects being described in this were eight young females,” Detective Sergeant Terry Browne said at a Tuesday press conference. ” The teenage girls were apprehended shortly thereafter. 

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Three of the suspects were 13, three of them were 14, and two of them were 16. 

“What we’ve gleaned so far is that these eight individuals met via social media, they all come from varying parts of the city, and we don’t know how or why they met on that evening. We don’t know why they met downtown,” Browne said. “We don’t know how long they’ve been acquitted with each other” 

“I wouldn’t describe them as a gang at this point but what is alleged to have occurred that evening is what we would traditionally call a swarming.” 

The suspects have been charged with second-degree murder. 

Browne said the eight teenage girls were involved in an earlier altercation in the same area. "A number of weapons were secured" after the teenage girls were arrested. Browne said that three of the suspects had prior contact with police but five of them did not. 

Police say the victim was  “living in the shelter system,” but Browne said he wouldn’t describe him “as homeless, just recently hard luck.” 

Sunday was a violent day for Toronto. Hours after this attack, a 73-year-old man killed six members of his condo board in a horrific attack just north of Toronto.