One of the eight teenage girls charged with surrounding a man in Toronto, Canada, and stabbing him to death has been granted bail.
The teenager, whose name has not been released because she is a minor, has been required to surrender her passport, give up her cellphone, stay in Ontario, and only leave the house with supervision, Reuters reported. She also has been prohibited from going online except for school.
The other seven defendants have been remanded into custody and will appear in court on January 5 to schedule bail hearings.
The group of teenage girls, some as young as 13, allegedly “swarmed” a man living in a shelter and stabbed him to death. The victim, a 59-year-old man who had been living in a shelter, has not been identified as police are still notifying his family members. The man was found with multiple stab wounds shortly after 12 a.m. on the morning of December 18 when police received a call about an assault, Toronto police said in a press release earlier this month. The victim was taken to a hospital but 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 press conference on December 20.
The teens were arrested soon after the attack and charged with second-degree murder. Three were just 13 years old, while another three were 14, and two 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 at the press conference. “We don’t know how long they’ve been [acquainted] 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,” Browne added.
“Swarming” refers to an incident in which multiple attackers target a victim together, CNN reported.
Browne also noted that three of the girls had “prior contact” with police, but didn’t elaborate.
The detective sergeant said that the group of girls was also involved in an altercation earlier the same night in the same area and that a “number of weapons were secured” once the group was arrested, according to Vice.
Police wouldn’t describe the victim as homeless, but did say he was “living in the shelter system” due to recent “hard luck.” The victim apparently had been staying in a shelter since the fall, Fox News reported.
“He does have a very supportive family in the area,” Browne said at the press conference.