Ten people have been placed under arrest in connection with a crime spree that included a random robbery and shooting at a Toronto high school Thursday afternoon.
Police say the group of suspects was arrested Thursday night and early Friday morning after an intense search by detectives.
They are suspected of engaging in acrime spree that began as early as Jan. 8 and has escalated in violence since.
The group is believed to have robbed convenience stores, pizza delivery drivers and civilians going about their business.
“Anything that moved, these individuals wanted to rob,” Staff Insp. Mike Earl told reporters at a news conference Friday.
Inside Thistletown Collegiate Institute Thursday, two students were robbed at gunpoint of their cellphones.
One of the suspects fired a shot at a student as they fled through the parking lot. No one was injured but police say it was a close call.
“Yesterday’s events could have been much more tragic than they turned out to be,” said Supt. Ron Taverner at the news conference. “It’s hard to believe these things happen. This could have been quite a different outcome yesterday.”
Police say the group of males left the school in a vehicle that was reported stolen earlier in the week.
Later that day, they allegedly robbed a wireless shop on Finch Avenue and then a convenience store on Weston Road.
Police had received several eye-witness accounts from the incident at the school. The descriptions of the suspects and the car that were provided helped investigators establish a pattern.
“We don’t have a lot of shotgun robberies of convenience stores, so it was easy to put together,” Earl said. “The height, weight, how things were said, how violence was escalating, it was easy (to find a pattern.)”
Investigators tracked down the stolen vehicle Thursday evening and once they did, they sat back and waited to see if people would come back to claim the car.
“People did go back to the car and arrests were made,” Earl said.
Two of the suspects are under the age of 18. In total, the suspects are facing 21 robbery-related charges. Those charges include offences committed at Thistletown.
The robberies were non-violent when they first began back in January though the suspects were armed, police said. Soon, victims were being pistol-whipped and then on Thursday, a shot was fired.
Earl said he believes greed was the main motivation behind the attacks.
“These individuals are preying on individuals for greed,” he said. “They are basically parasites preying on people – good people – who are minding their own business.
“These robberies, no doubt, would have been worse if we didn’t get these guys,” he said.
Earl said police were executing 11 search warrants at homes in the city’s west end throughout Friday. He didn’t rule out the possibility of more arrests.
@SandieBenitah is on Twitter. Remember for instant breaking news, follow @CP24 on Twitter.
