Teens charged after Toronto ‘swarming’ attack also suspects in random TTC assaults: police source

The teen girls charged after allegedly murdering a Toronto homeless man in a “swarming” attack are also suspects in a series of random TTC assaults, a Toronto police source tells Global News.

Police are seeking the public’s assistance in locating victims who were reportedly assaulted by a group of teenage girls along a Toronto Transit Commission line last month.

Toronto police said on Dec. 17, 2022, between 10 p.m. and 12 a.m., a group of eight to 10 teen girls allegedly “randomly assaulted several people.”

Police said the alleged assaults occurred on the TTC Line 1 at Queen’s Park, St. Patrick, Osgoode, St. Andrew and Union stations.

A police source said the girls who were charged after the fatal attack on a homeless man were considered suspects in the set of apparently random attacks on the Toronto subway.

“Officers are urging anyone who may have been a victim to come forward and speak with investigators,” police said in a news release.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
The assaults took place the same night that eight teenage girls allegedly swarmed and stabbed a homeless man in the downtown core who later died in hospital.

Three 13-year-olds, three 14-year-olds and two 16-year-olds are facing second-degree murder in the death.
The victim in that incident was identified earlier this week as 59-year-old Ken Lee.

Officers said he had recently moved into the city’s shelter system.

A Toronto police spokesperson said the force “cannot confirm whether or not” the incidents involved the same group of girls.

“This is a separate investigation that is being investigated by the division,” police said in an email to Global News.