Police: Canada girls assaulted people same night as killing
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian police are asking victims to come forward after a group of eight to 10 teenage girls randomly assaulted several people at subway stations in Toronto on the same night police say eight teenage girls stabbed and killed a homeless man outside a station.
Toronto police said in a short release on Wednesday that they are seeking the public’s help to identify victims who were assaulted at five downtown subway stations between 10 p.m. and 12. a.m. on Dec. 17, hours before 59-year-old Ken Lee was killed near Union Station.
Toronto police would not say whether the suspects in the killing are the same teen girls suspected in the assaults and cited a court publication ban in the case for not providing more information.
Police say Lee died in hospital after he was swarmed and stabbed by a group of eight teenage girls in mid-December. Three 13-year-olds, three 14-year-olds and two 16-year-olds face second-degree murder charges.
Police said they believe the girls met on social media and are from homes across the Greater Toronto Area. They said three had previous interactions with police, while five others did not.
Canadian authorities can’t identify them because they’re minors. One was granted bail last month, while the rest await hearings.
Investigators have said they think the girls were trying to take a bottle of alcohol from the man. They also said the same girls got into an altercation earlier that night, taking part in a “swarming,” which is unheard of among girls, Toronto Police Sgt. Terry Browne said last month.
For a time decades ago in Toronto, young teen boys would swarm people as they tried to steal Dr. Martens boots or Air Jordan shoes, but the crimes faded away, he said.
