Kenneth Lee told a group of teenage girls to leave his friend alone.
Moments later, the attack began — punches, kicks, spitting and objects hurled at him. The 59-year-old wound up “crumpled” on the ground after being swarmed by the girls.
That’s what the court heard from an agreed statement of facts on Tuesday after the second girl charged with second-degree murder pleaded guilty, this time to assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon — identified as a green bag belonging to Lee.
The girl, who is 15, but was 13 at the time of the crime, will be sentenced this fall.
The first resolution in the case came last week when the first of the eight girls charged with second-degree murder pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. Three other girls are scheduled to enter pleas later this month. The remaining three are headed to a jury trial at Superior Court that has not yet been scheduled.
On Tuesday, the girl, wearing a wrinkled white dress shirt, parts of the collar flipped up, answered “yes” in a quiet voice to each question Ontario Court Justice David Rose asked her in a sixth floor courtroom of the Armoury Street courthouse downtown and “guilty” when asked how she wanted to plead.
Police have identified the pc28¹ÙÍøman allegedly stabbed to death by a group of teenage girls as 59-year-old Ken Lee.Â
The Canadian Press/pc28¹ÙÍøPolice Service handoutThe agreed statement of facts contained similar details to that read in court last week.
It began with describing how the group of girls met at Yorkdale mall between 9 and 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 18, 2022.Â
After loitering on the TTC platform for some time, the group headed southbound on Line 1 towards Union Station. That journey was chaotic, including incidents of the teens harassing passengers and at one point, at St. George station, being escorted out of the subway by special constables.
The girl who pleaded guilty Tuesday was said at several points along the way to have observed the behaviour of the others but not to have participated in it.
Eventually the girls arrived at a parkette near University Avenue and Front Street where they encountered Lee and his companion.
Lee, who was homeless at the time, was meeting with a female friend near the Strathcona Hotel, which was operating as a temporary shelter throughout the pandemic. Lee had previously stayed at the shelter and the woman was currently staying there.
The girl who pleaded guilty Tuesday watched as some of the other girls approached Lee’s friend and were “harassing” her. She saw them steal a bottle of alcohol the woman was carrying, the statement said.
The woman moved back to the centre of the parkette where she was re-joined by Lee and the two stood discussing what the girls had done, the statement said. Moments later, the woman was again confronted by the girls when Lee told them to leave her alone.
During the ensuing attack, the girl who pleaded guilty to the two counts of assault admitted to kicking Lee when he was pinned down on a planter and being attacked “from all angles” by several girls, the statement said. In the third of three waves of the attack, the girl was seen on surveillance video throwing a plastic water bottle and hitting Lee twice in the head and neck area with a green bag that belonged to Lee. It wasn’t discussed what if anything was in the bag.
The statement said at no point was the girl in possession of a knife nor did she stab Lee.
Lee, the statement said, died from a stab wound that punctured his heart. Paramedics that arrived on scene at the parkette did not immediately realize he had been stabbed. After he collapsed and was further examined, he was rushed to surgery at St. Michael’s Hospital but he could not be saved.
All but the girl who pleaded guilty last week are out of custody on bail.Â
