In a downtown Toronto courtroom Tuesday, one of the occupants of a car that was the target of a shooting that resulted in the death of a 12-year-old boy testified he pulled out a gun first.
Deshaun Daley told the jury that on Nov. 7, 2020, just after 2 p.m. — the time that 12-year-old Dante Andreatta was struck by a stray bullet, Daley was sitting in a friend’s car in the parking lot of a building on Stong Court smoking weed.
Daley, who was 17 at the time, said he was in the passenger seat when he noticed a Honda Accord approach with two people inside wearing surgical face masks. He said there were a total of five occupants in his friend’s vehicle, and they had been sitting inside for approximately 10 minutes.
He testified he noticed one of the men from the Honda Accord approaching his side of the car and said he had a bulge in his sweater. “I decided to take my pistol out. It was on my waist. I was paranoid because I was high and due to the fact of the area we were in,” said Daley. “I pointed it out the window, thinking I would scare them off. That’s when all hell broke loose.”
He said that’s when they were shot at, and his friend began driving off. The jury has heard that two shooters discharged a total of 36 rounds, 18 each. At least 19 of the rounds struck the car. Daley testified he had a Glock 16 handgun with a regular-sized magazine.
“After I was shot at, I ducked for cover as I put the window up,” said Daley. He testified he was struck four times — twice in the shoulder, once in the left thigh and once in the right leg.
Assistant Crown attorney Patrick Clement asked Daley if they had any interaction with the Honda Accord prior to the shooting. He explained that they were making hand gestures as if to ask if they were leaving their parking spot.
Daley testified that after driving off, they stopped at a traffic light, and he remembered seeing a sewer and considered getting rid of his pistol. “I got paranoid because I thought other people were watching from their vehicles.”
He said they eventually ended up in a strip mall near a fish-and-chip restaurant and thought he was going to pass out. Daley testified that he told his friend who was driving to get rid of the gun. “A day later, he told me he threw it in the dumpster,” he explained.
Court has heard that the friend who was driving that day has since died of a drug overdose. Daley testified he is currently serving a custodial sentence for two break-and-enters in Newmarket, Ont., and has a number of other convictions for possession of a prohibited weapon and break-and-enter.
Daley told Clement he had never seen the shooters before and didn’t know why they were shot at, nor why he or anyone else in car would have been a target.
Rashawn Chambers, Jahwayne Smart and Cjay Hobbs are jointly charged with one count of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder. Chambers has conceded he is one of the shooters and Hobbs admits he is the getaway driver.
The jury must decide if Smart is the second shooter captured on video surveillance firing at the vehicle that Daley was in.
On Friday, jurors saw video capturing the takedown of Chambers and Smart outside the Canadian Tire store at Bay and Dundas streets on Nov. 9, 2020, two days after the deadly shooting. Both men were carrying loaded Glock 19 handguns at the time of their arrest. It is an admitted fact that they are the same two guns that were used in the shooting two days earlier.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Hobbs was arrested on Nov. 12, 2020, just hours after Toronto police held a news conference announcing the arrest of Chambers and Smart. Investigators advised the public they were looking for a third individual would was going to be charged with first-degree murder.
Hobbs bought a plane ticket to Halifax using the name “Raheem Alexander” and boarded the plane using a fake Quebec driver’s licence in that name. He boarded the plane, and it took off. When it landed in Halifax, Hobbs was taken into custody.
Chambers, Smart and Hobbs have all pleaded not guilty.