An Asian Toronto woman described how she watched eight teen girls swarm a friend who tried to come to her rescue.
She told Toronto CTV the girls stabbed and killed the 59-year-old man.
Erica Chin recalls the teens grabbed a bottle of alcohol she was drinking.
“My friend Kenny,” she said in tears, “he saw it. Stopped them. ‘”Leave her alone,”‘ she recalls him saying. And then they,” as she punched the air with her fist.
The girls described by police to CBC as three 13 year olds, three 14 and two 16 are all facing second degree murder charges. The whole incident took less than three minutes.
The assault happened on York Street and University Avenue in Toronto shortly after midnight Sunday.
The victim had recently been living in a city shelter, according to NBC.
“He does have a very supportive family in the area. I wouldn’t necessarily call him homeless, maybe just recently on some hard luck,” said Detective Sgt. Terry Browne.
He said the girls met each other on social media and came from different parts of the city.
“We don’t know how or why they met on that evening and why the destination was downtown Toronto. We don’t know how long they have been acquainted together with each other. I wouldn’t describe them as a gang at this point,” he said.
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