The guilty pleas of four of the eight teenage girls accused of the unpremeditated murder of Ken Lee revealed that the group of minors savagely attacked the homeless man in Toronto in 2022. A look back at the presentation of the facts concerning those who are confessed in order to avoid a trial and hope to receive a more lenient sentence.
The eight teenagers, who cannot be identified due to their age, were 13, 14 and 16 years old at the time of their arrest around 3 a.m. on December 18, 2022.
Joint Statement of Facts
The joint submission of the Crown and the four defences describes chronologically what exactly happened that night.
The actions of the four teenage girls who were brought before the higher court, however, cannot be described so as not to damage their presumption of innocence or the impartiality of their trial in 2025.
The presentation nevertheless describes very well the armed attack against the 59-year-old victim in a small concrete square near Union Station, where the group had gathered to hang out.
It is 11:53 p.m. on the evening of December 17, 2022.
Two of the four teens said in their pleas that they bought alcohol at a store before arriving near Union Station without paying: rum, vodka and whiskey. They also admitted to smoking marijuana.
Open in full screen mode
The small concrete plaza (left) with the two glass entrances to the downtown Toronto underground where the fatal attack on Ken Lee took place.
Photo : Radio-Canada / CBC
Some teenage girls begin to bother a homeless woman, Erica, a friend of Ken Lee, who lives in a nearby homeless shelter.
Erica holds a bottle of alcohol that teenage girls covet. Ken Leewho was absent at the shelter, comes out and asks the group to stop bothering her friend.
It is at this moment that the group attacks the victim in three successive waves. The attack was captured on surveillance cameras, video of which was presented at the group’s bail hearing on January 20, 2023.
Open in full screen mode
The steps of the Strathcona Homeless Hotel are located just behind the concrete plaza where Ken Lee was stabbed to death in 2022. He often visited a friend there.
Photo : Radio-Canada / CBC
There you see the teenager No 2 hit Ken with his feet and fists Lee. She then attacks him with a wrench and her handbag in addition to spitting on him in the first phase of the assault.
The teenager No 3 punched and kicked him, shouting and spitting on him. The teenager No 6 also kicks and punches him a few times, as well as trampling him when the homeless man is once on the ground, while spitting on him and yelling at him. The teenager No 4 joins her in hitting Ken Lee of his feet.
In the second phase, a minor No 2 in turn tramples Ken Lee and begins to chase him, when he manages to escape from the group’s grip before hitting him again with his bag.
Open in full screen mode
Police had set up a security perimeter around the concrete square when they arrived at the scene of Ken Lee’s murder.
Photo : Radio-Canada
The minor No 6 hits him again with a bag filled with ice before throwing a bottle of water at him. She then climbs a low wall against which Ken Lee is blocked before kicking him and hitting him again with an ice bag. Minor No 4 then throws a bottle in his direction.
In the last phase, the adolescent No 6 grabs Ken by the head Lee, who has extricated himself from his unfortunate situation, then throws him to the ground. The teenager No 2 then hits him in the back with vise grip pliers, when the homeless man found himself on the ground again after the fatal stab to the chest.
The teenager No 4 attacks meanwhile Ken Lee with a bag full of ice. Teenager No 6 kicks and stomps on him before the group disperses when a shelter worker arrives.
Melissa Alexander left the establishment after his shift and noticed what was happening on the square.
They pounced on him like she-wolves on a piece of meat.
Arrest and commotion
The autopsy showed that Ken Lee suffered 19 blows to the face and body before being fatally stabbed to the heart, but the Crown says the blows from the four teenage girls in question did not cause his death.
The Crown maintains that none of these four minors had a knife on them during the verbal and physical confrontation with the victim, which implies that the one who stabbed Ken Lee is among the four girls who were brought before the superior court.
Open in full screen mode
The Union Station lobby where the eight teenage girls hung out after the attack on Ken Lee just steps away.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Charley Dutil
After the attack, the group left the park and took up residence in the entrance to a nearby office tower. They took photos of themselves with their cell phones laughing and dancing.
They then returned to Union Station to hang out. Their friend JB joined them. The minor No 3 is drunk and vomits inside Union Station before his group is kicked out by a security guard.
JB is injured in the hand in a friendly fight with one of the teenage girls in the group, who then accompanies him to the Hospital for Sick Children.
The group was arrested around 3 a.m. when the police became aware of an attack on a homeless person and seized videos from surveillance cameras in the square and the metro.
Open in full screen mode
The eight teenage girls had accompanied their friend JB to Sick Kids Hospital during the night for a hand injury.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Patrick Morrell
The eight teenagers were discovered at the Hospital for Sick Children and police prohibited them from leaving the premises because they were considered persons of interest.
According to the Crown, several young girls then denounced the teenager No 6 to the police claiming that she was the one who stabbed Ken Lee. However, it is not.
A hospital surveillance camera filmed the noisy scene of this alleged betrayal and the video was shown during the bail hearing.
Once at the station, the police will discover in the bag of the teenager No 2 an adjustable wrench, a taser gun and cayenne pepper spray.
Assaults in the metro
The group met at Yorkdale subway station at 9 p.m. on the evening of December 17, 2022. Other young people including JB will join them, but will leave them during the evening except for the teenager.
The mayhem began at St. George station 45 minutes later, when two minors chased a user onto the platform. The group follows them.
Three teenage girls then kick a stationary train car, while the other hits the metal with her wrench.
Open in full screen mode
The disturbance and the first attacks on CTT users took place at the St. George metro station, according to the Crown.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Adjani Toussom
The group then boarded the train, heading south, but their commotion caused a commotion that delayed the departure.
The 8 teenagers and JB are then escorted out of the station by police officers. CTT and firefighters. The group remained on the sidewalk for about 30 minutes before returning to the station without paying.
A teenage girl then throws a bottle of sports drink at a passenger, while the group begins shouting at him. JB intervenes between the user and the group, who immediately board the train.
Open in full screen mode
All scenes of disorder and attacks in the metro are captured by surveillance cameras, which will facilitate the work of the police to identify the 8 accused later in the night.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Evan Mitsui
The teenage girls and JB get off at St. Andrews, four stops further south. Three teenage girls then attack two women on the platform. They are joined by the others, who start yelling at them before leaving them.
The teenage girls and JB go through the station turnstiles and two of them leave the group.
The group then attacks three women on the stairs. A teenage girl attacks the blonde woman, pulling her hair, hitting her, throwing her bag of chips and spitting on her.
The brunette woman steps in to help her friend, while one of the minors pulls her group out.
The three women reported the attack to the metro controller who called 911.
Open in full screen mode
The entrance to Toronto’s Union Station subway station.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Charley Dutil
The two teenagers join the rest of the group at Union station. The group splits into two. The first goes to a convenience store, the other stays outside along the street York.
The group in the trade then creates a commotion, the nature of which has not been specified. Security escorts the four teenage girls outside who flee.
Meanwhile, three teenage girls board a westbound taxi before getting off a few meters further without paying the driver before joining the group on the concrete square.
The four teenagers who did not plead guilty will appear in Ontario Superior Court on July 3 to continue the proceedings that have been initiated against them.
