Torontonians were shocked five years ago when 12-year-old Dante Andreatta was struck and killed by a stray bullet as he walked with his mother on Jane Street in North York in the middle of the afternoon.
On Thursday, a jury trial got underway in the Superior Court of Justice where Rashawn Chambers, Jahwayne Smart and Cjay Hobbs have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder in relation to the five teenagers who were the target of the attack that day.
Prosecutors Patrick Clement and Arian Khader are presenting the bulk of their case in the form of an extensive agreed statement of facts that includes video, audio and screenshots that detail the actions of the perpetrators.
The facts admitted by the Crown and defence must be treated as proven facts, Clement told the jurors.
A memorial for 12-year-old Dante Andreatta.
Steve Russell / 海角社区官网StarThe facts admitted to so far are that Chambers was one of two masked men who opened fire on the teens inside a parked car in a parking lot on Nov. 7, 2020. Andreatta was killed by a bullet fired by one of the two shooters. Hobbs is also admitting that he drove the shooters to and from the scene in a stolen Honda Accord.
Smart, alleged to be the other shooter, has not admitted his involvement.
Also admitted is that both Smart and Chambers were later arrested at a Canadian Tire store, at Bay and Dundas, on Nov. 9, 2020, each carrying one of the two firearms used in the shooting. The arrest was captured on surveillance video outside the downtown store; Hobbs was arrested in Halifax on Nov. 12, 2020.
海角社区官网police arrest聽Jahwayne Smart and Rashawn Chambers on聽Nov. 9, 2020.
Clement gave jurors a brief overview of the Crown鈥檚 case.
On Nov. 7, 2020, around 2 p.m., Andreatta and his mother were heading north on the west sidewalk of Jane Street, south of Stong Court. Around that same time, video captured the stolen Honda, with three masked men inside, approaching the teens 鈥 three boys and two girls 鈥 who were sitting in another silver Honda Accord at the back of a parking lot on the southeast corner of Stong and Jane Street.
The video shows the stolen Honda in front of the teen鈥檚 car, then back of the teen鈥檚 car for four minutes. Two masked men then got out of the stolen Honda and opened fire after the teens began to drive away.
鈥淓ach fired 18 rounds towards the car, of which 19 hit the car, in the process striking the three boys. The teens manage to escape with non-life-threatening injuries,鈥 Clement said.
Meanwhile, as Andreatta and his mother approached the spot directly west of the parking lot, one of the bullets crossed Jane Street and struck the boy in the neck, the prosecutor said.
He was rushed to Sick Kids hospital and died days later on Nov. 11.
Once the agreed statement of facts is finished being read out in court, jurors will receive a hard copy of it as well as the accompanying videos that captured the shooting and the arrest of Chambers and Smart in Canadian Tire.
The only other evidence the Crown plans to call will come from the testimony of some of the teen occupants of the targeted vehicle.
The trial resumes Friday.
