8 teen girls charged with murder in stabbing death

TORONTO (AP):

Eight teenage girls who apparently met on social media have been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a 59-year-old man in Toronto, police said Tuesday.

Investigators allege that the girls assaulted and stabbed the man in the city’s downtown core early Sunday morning. Toronto police said medics took the man to a hospital, where he died.

According to police, the eight girls were arrested near where the attack happened. Three of the girls are 13 years old, three are 14 and two are 16.

Detective Sgt Terry Browne of the Toronto Police Service Homicide Squad said investigators think the girls were trying to take a bottle of alcohol from the man.

“I’ve been in policing for almost 35 years and you think you’ve seen it all,” Browne said in an interview with AP. “Anyone who isn’t shocked with hearing something like this has clearly just thrown in the towel and just said that anything is possible in this world. Eight young girls and most under the age of 16. If this isn’t alarming and shocking to everyone, then we’re all in trouble quite frankly.”