EDITOR’S NOTE (July 18, 2025): Toronto police say Shaquan Mesquito was arrested Thursday, July 17, and was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
A Toronto man wanted for attempted murder in a stabbing last week is the same man convicted in relation to a high-profile mass shooting in 2012, Global News has learned.
Toronto police said Wednesday they are looking for 31-year-old Shaquan Mesquito in connection with a downtown stabbing on July 11 at Yonge and Dundas streets. Officers found a 30-year-old man who had been stabbed and was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Mesquito is wanted for attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
He is the same man who was convicted in a brazen mass shooting at a block party barbecue outside a public housing complex on Danzig Street on July 16, 2012. He was known as Shaquan “Bam Bam” Mesquito and was 18 at the time of the shooting.
According to police at the time, several members of the Galloway Boys gang attended the community barbeque in Scarborough and “took ownership” of it. Violence erupted after a squabble between members of the Galloway Boys and their traditional rivals from the Malvern area of Toronto.
The chaotic shoutout killed two people — 23-year-old Joshua Yasay and 14-year-old Shyanne Charles — and left 23 people injured.
The Danzig shooting has been known as one of the worst in Toronto’s history.
The incident was called an “unprecedented” episode of violence by Toronto police, and stunned the country and rocked the community to its core.
Back in 2012, Mesquito was initially charged with uttering threats when he was arrested shortly after the shooting in July. Then, in November 2012, the charges were later upgraded to include two counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted murder, 23 counts aggravated assault and one count of reckless discharge of a firearm.
However, in January 2015, Crown lawyers dropped several charges against Mesquito, who was 21 years old at that time.
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The Crown withdrew two murder charges, one count of attempted murder, reckless discharge of a firearm and 23 counts of aggravated assault.
Mesquito pleaded guilty to four new, lesser charges including counselling two people “to commit the indictable offence of murder which offence was not committed,” as well as uttering threats and illegal firearm possession.
There was not enough evidence to link Mesquito directly to the murders. In an agreed statement of facts, Mesquito was angered after being kicked out of the party and attempted to recruit others to come back and take revenge. After the shooting, he bragged about it online but investigators found a security video that placed him far away from Danzig.
He was handed a nine-year prison term sentence in 2015, that included time served in pre-trial custody.
Police are asking anyone with information or who sees Mesquito to contact them immediately.
“He is considered dangerous and should not be approached,” police said on Wednesday.
Global News reached out to the Parole Board of Canada (PBC), which confirmed that as of May 18, 2025, Mesquito is no longer serving a federal term of imprisonment.
But in a previous decision from the PBC about Mesquito from October 2024, while he was still serving time, a suspension of his statutory release was cancelled after the board deemed he was no longer an undue risk to society, but put conditions on his release, including not to consume alcohol or drugs and a reside at a specific place.
The document outlined that Mesquito had been first granted statutory in November 2021 but said it was revoked in March 2023 after Mesquito failed to return to the community correctional centre. He was again granted statutory release in March 2024 with conditions, but it was suspended when Mesquito was observed smoking what appeared to be a joint, behaving disrespectively towards correctional staff and stating he would punch someone if they didn’t mind their business.
In imposing a residency condition, the Board cited his propensity for violence, his use and possession of weapons, failure to comply with a weapons prohibition, his ties to security threat groups, his negative institutional behaviour, which includes a violent assault on another offender, his threatening behaviours that endanger the safety of others, and his high need in both static and dynamic factors.
In the section of the document which gave a brief overview of the current sentence, the PBC wrote, “In July 2012, you attended a party in a rival neighborhood. An individual at the party told you to leave and brandished a firearm and threatened to shoot you. You attempted to secure a firearm and posted on social media, encouraging others to ‘shoot up’ the party.
“The hosts of the party learned this and armed themselves to prepare for a shootout. While you and your associates did not return to the party, a shootout occurred and two victims were killed and 23 others were shot. In March 2016, while incarcerated, you were involved in an assault on another offender during which he was stabbed more than 40 times.”
As for his risk to reoffend, his statistical Information on Recidivism score of three indicates that two out of three offenders with a similar score will not commit an indictable offence within three years of release.
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