Staff Reporter
Four panhandlers arrested early Thursday morning and charged in connection with a stabbing on Queen St. W. were just passing through Toronto and not aggressive by nature, said a man identifying himself as a friend.
Scott MacPhee, 29, said his friends were on their way to Trinity-Bellwoods Park to sleep when the confrontation occurred.
Ross Hammond, 32, of St. Catharines, died of his injuries Saturday morning after staying nearly 48 hours in hospital and having several operations.
"We had all eaten really well that night ... we all had money, so it wasn't like we were desperate," MacPhee said, as he sat under an awning at the corner of Queen St. W. and Bathurst St., sheltering from the rain yesterday afternoon.
"There was nothing crazy going on. I don't really see how s--- turned so sour."
According to police, the panhandlers – Douglas Fresh, 22, Nicole Kish, 21, Sarah McDermit, 22, and Jeremy Woolley, 21, all of no fixed address – asked for change and grew angry when Hammond refused.
An argument escalated into a fight and three people ended up in hospital.
"They were abusive, they were aggressive," Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux said of the panhandlers. "It was a heated exchange and it certainly escalated very quickly."
Hammond is Toronto's 51st homicide victim of 2007.
MacPhee said he and his friends had been drinking that night.
During the confrontation, he added, his friends were injured.
"The people who got stabbed were three of my very good friends," he said. The original police call said two of those arrested had been cut – one on the left arm and the other on the left eyebrow and the back of the head.
MacPhee said that on Saturday police had confiscated his knife – which he said was a common possession among panhandlers who travel in the north or ride the trains – and his "hobo tool," which is a device that flicks into a fork, a spoon, or a can opener.
"They're just travelling kids in town to make money and move on," said a woman sitting next to MacPhee who declined to give her name.
As they sat out of the rain, MacPhee and his friends took turns petting a small, 2-month-old puppy called Huck Finn.
The four panhandlers have been charged with assault.
As of last night, police had not yet upgraded the charges.
4 comments:
it's sad to watch the morons call for a panhandling law, which would have done nothing here. Anyone who lives downtown who read this story would know full well these kids would have asked for money regardless of a panhandling law, they were walking to a park. The same people, who scoff at banning handguns, push for banning panhandling thinking it'll be different somehow.
Unbelievable.
It was never my intention to jeopardize your income......
or yours for that matter.
I didn't realize that banning handguns would cut into your income.
See what a dumb as post comment that is?
yeah! More proof you are more interested in drunken hollering than real discussion.
Yeah you're really showing us the hypocrisy of the left alright....
lol.
I don't think anyone has an objection to banning ILLEGAL handguns and we feel it is appropriate that we ban ILLEGAL panhandling. Leave panhandling to the professionals; politicians, social in-activists, etc.
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