For the second time in as many weeks, a 14-year-old boy has been charged with premeditated murder in Canada’s largest city, where the Toronto Police Service say firearms arrests involving minors have nearly doubled in 2024 from the same period a year ago.
In a public statement released Friday, police said that they arrested the boy for first-degree murder in connection with a targeted shooting that occurred in the city’s northwest. On June 24, four gunmen got out of a car at Jane Street and Falstaff Avenue and opened fire on 20-year-old Ajay Simpson, fleeing the scene before their victim died. Police are still looking for three other suspects.
The same day as that shooting, police announced they had charged a different 14-year-old boy with two counts of first-degree murder. That crime, which also occurred in northwest Toronto, involved a gunman who sprayed bullets at a group of men playing soccer in a schoolyard at Kipling and Finch Avenues. Sixty-one-year-old Delroy (George) Parkes and 46-year-old Seymour Gibbs were killed during the June 2 shooting.
Charges involving murder suspects as young as 14 are exceedingly rare. Statistics Canada data indicates that across Canada police services typically charge only about 10 to 25 youth under age 18 with first-degree murder each year.
Toronto police say they are seeing an alarming rise in youth firearms offences. There have been 103 such arrests in the first six months of 2024 compared to 54 in the same period last year, said Toronto Police spokeswoman Stephanie Sayer in an e-mail.
Senior police commanders in Toronto say that gangs are recruiting younger members and giving them access to guns smuggled from across the U.S. border.
“The broader question is why are young people getting involved?” Toronto Police Deputy Chief Rob Johnson said at a news conference in June.
“We know that there are gang and turf wars out there and the compositions of these gangs are getting younger and younger.”
Serena Nudel, director of community programs at The Neighbourhood Group Community Services, said “it’s tragic to see violence trending each year and getting younger.”
Her social agency serves tens of thousands of low-income people and families across Toronto and she said the factors behind the increase in youth violence can be complex, but are linked to poverty and a lack of resources and supports.
“We’re seeing cuts at all levels of government to youth employment and seeing youth who are experiencing poverty and lack of opportunity – which then leads to lack of hope,” she said.
“We really need to focus on creating opportunities for youth. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to see a brighter future … Youth who feel connected, engaged and who are valued can see a positive future for themselves. They don’t participate in these acts of violence,” she said.
The Youth Association for Academics, Athletics and Character Education, centred in Toronto’s Jane-and-Finch community, last year launched an initiative for youth violence prevention.
“We’ve seen an uptake in homicide victimization and perpetration,” said Devon Jones, the organization’s founding director. He said that the Internet can act as an accelerant in youth violence. “Someone posts something on social media about a shooting and now everyone sees – and thinks now you have to retaliate.”
Mr. Jones said that deadly cycles of retribution threaten to repeat themselves until the broader public starts to address the root causes of crime, especially in neighbourhoods where people feel threatened by higher crime rates.
“Kids will tell you we’re not safe. We don’t feel safe,” he said. “So a lot of kids, a lot of these young men, are taking safety in their own hands and that’s why you’re seeing this proliferation of violence.”