A teenager involved in a fatal “mass shooting” outside a Toronto school last summer has had the murder charges against him dropped.
The teen, who can’t be identified due to provisions under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, pleaded guilty Monday to accessory after the fact to a discharged firearm, possession of a loaded restricted firearm without authorization and possession of stolen property over $5,000.
He had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder in connection with the June 2, 2024, shooting in the parking lot of North Albion Collegiate Institute. He was 14 at the time, and was the only person arrested in connection to the case to date.
Speaking to Global News on Tuesday, Crown attorney Simon King said he told the judge during Monday’s hearing there was “not evidence sufficient for a reasonable prospect of conviction” on the murder charges. In Canada, the Crown has one year from the date the charges were stayed to bring them back to court.
Seymour Gibbs, 46, and Delroy George Parkes, 61, were among eight people who gathered at the school to socialize and play dominoes on Sunday afternoons. These gatherings were described as “casual and friendly” in an agreed statement of facts (ASF) released Monday.
Gibbs and Parkes died, and three others were injured, in what Toronto police described as a “mass shooting” at the time.
Teen was ‘willfully blind,’ ASF reads
According to the ASF, three suspects drove into the school’s parking lot in a dark grey Ford F-150 at 10:50 p.m., two suspects got out and approached the group, and one of them fired an automatic weapon, discharging roughly 23 rounds and hitting five people.
They fled back to the vehicle and drove off together; the Ford was parked at 11:03 p.m. at 74 Amoro Dr. in Etobicoke, roughly three kilometres south of the school. The suspects exited the truck and left on foot.
At 12:05 a.m. on June 3, 2024, the teenager had a conversation on Snapchat with another user, the ASF states. The user wrote to the teenager in a series of messages sent over seven seconds, “5 ppl r u stupid.”
At 12:58 a.m., the teenager sent a Snapchat message to his girlfriend stating, “I have sum to do.” After asking him for more details, the teen replied at 1 a.m. saying, “I dead can’t,” and replied a minute later, adding, “Sum srs,” meaning something serious.
The teen took an Uber to 74 Amoro Dr. — where the Ford was left — at 1:39 a.m., the ASF indicates. He messaged a Snapchat user at 1:43 a.m., saying, “I just got here.” The user replied, asking if he saw “the wheels,” to which the teen confirmed in his reply. He got into the Ford and drove off at 1:44 a.m.
The teen “admits that when he drove the Ford F150 away from 74 Amoro Drive, he had a suspicion that he may be assisting the people involved in the shooting at North Albion Collegiate by moving evidence of the crime,” the ASF reads.
He “further admits that he made a conscious decision not to make inquiries that would confirm his suspicion, and that he was therefore willfully blind to his participation as an accessory after the fact to the shooting at North Albion Collegiate.”
Police pursuit unfolds
At 1:56 a.m., two police officers in a scout car spotted the Ford near the intersection of Rexdale Boulevard and Martin Grove Road. They followed it onto Jeffcoat Drive and sped up; the Ford turned north onto Kearney Drive and crashed into a vehicle.
The teen quickly exited from the driver’s seat and fled southbound while holding a loaded handgun in his waistband, the ASF states. One of the officers drew his sidearm and pointed it at the teen while shouting a command to stop. The teen ignored it and fled.
A lengthy police foot pursuit ensued; the teen ran past St. Benedict Catholic Elementary School and threw the handgun onto the roof of a portable. He was apprehended and arrested shortly afterwards. The weapon was not located until the next day when a civilian found it on the portable’s roof and called police.
The handgun had been loaded with four cartridges of .380 auto calibre centre-fire ammunition. Its serial number had been obliterated.
The shell casings found at North Albion Collegiate did not match the firearm discarded by the teen, the ASF stated.
He was never licensed to possess a handgun, nor did he have any firearms certificates. The Ford F-150 was stolen in May 2024 and had a value of $55,000 as of June that year.
“He had a suspicion that the truck was stolen property, and … made a conscious decision not to make inquiries that would confirm his suspicion,” the ASF states, adding the teen “admits that he was therefore willfully blind to the fact that the F-150 truck in his possession was stolen property.”
The teen, who is now 16, was released on house arrest bail Monday and will return to court for sentencing in the fall.