MANDEL: Young guns plead to their role in helping teen involved in GTA tow-truck murder
· Toronto Sun
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The kids are not alright.
Two gun-happy teens barely old enough to shave have admitted to a disturbing crime spree, including helping their friend cover up what police have called a “tow-truck related” murder and to shooting up numerous businesses — including a public school — with wild abandon.
They were just 15 at the time.
The suspected young guns for hire, their names covered — of course — by the Youth Criminal Justice Act and known only K.A. and R.R., were in the downtown courtroom to plead guilty to numerous charges, including one count of accessory after the fact to reckless discharge of a firearm in the July 6, 2024, shooting death of 28-year-old Sulakshan “Sully” Selvasingam.
The Pickering tow-truck operator was gunned down while sitting in his white Mercedes SUV at the Shell gas station at Warden Ave. and Ellesmere Rd.
“Within seconds and without provocation, he was shot repeatedly by (the third teen),” assistant Crown attorney Sharna Reid told Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell as the victim’s parents listened through an interpreter.
A.P., the alleged killer, K.A. and R.R. were all originally charged with first-degree murder and investigators at the time said the young teens were likely hired as foot soldiers in the tow-truck wars because the penalty for them, if caught, is so low.
According to the agreed statement of facts, the trio were in a stolen black Acura TLX near Kennedy Commons plaza on the night of July 5, 2024 when A.P. received a call during which “he discussed plans to kill someone.”
The following day, K.A. admitted he and A.P. spent the afternoon driving around the same Scarborough area in a white Honda Civic while R.R. drove in tandem in a stolen black Acura.
Later that evening, they separated. R.R. went to a prearranged location.
“He understood (A.P.) was going to carry out a shooting,” Reid said.
Shot at gas station
A.P. drove the white Honda with K.A. in the passenger seat to the Shell station . At 10:16 p.m., Selvasingam pulled up beside them and was shot, the prosecutor said.
A.P. then called R.R. and they all met up shortly before 11 p.m. in Uxbridge. While K.A. and R.R. didn’t shoot the victim, they admitted helping the gunman in removing the licence plates of the white Honda, dumping them down a sewer drain and then setting the car on fire “to conceal his identity as the shooter from police and assist him in escaping prosecution.”
Along with their role in the murder, the pair pleaded guilty to a long list of “reckless discharge of firearm” charges related to a frenzy of shootings over the Canada Day weekend that year.
Possible tow-truck war assignments
K.A. pleaded to eight counts and RR. to 10 — with the details suggesting some may have been assignments in the tow-truck turf war .
On June 29, 2024 at about 1:59 a..m., K.A. admitted he was a passenger in another stolen car — this time, a blue Honda Civic — when he opened fire at the Urban Auto Collision Centre. A security guard and an employee in the dispatch office fortunately escaped injury.
They then headed to York Cinemas in Richmond Hill where K.A. unleashed multiple shots and R.R. filmed him, the court heard.
The following afternoon, they returned to Urban Auto Collision in still another stolen vehicle — a black Honda CRV — and K.A. fired more shots. About a half an hour later, he shot at Bayview Hill Elementary School in broad daylight — luckily it was closed.
They then headed to Veerar Takeout in Scarborough where K.A. shot out the front window, Reid said, with staff inside and pedestrians nearby. The next target was Woodside Cinemas where he fired at the doors “within metres of an individual seen retreating through one of the doors” as R.R. egged him on: “Film it, record it,” he said. “Just hit those three doors.”
Their frightening fury of shooting continued at Williams Towing Service — where according to the agreed statement, K.A. filmed as A.P. discharged multiple shots — hitting a tow truck and the office. An hour later, K.A. fired at Cannaverse Dispensary.
R.R. pleaded guilty to those eight counts as well as two more: on July 5, 2024, he was in the stolen black Acura and was recording as someone said “This black one?” and R.R. replied; “Yeah, go fam.” The rear passenger opened fire on a tow truck in a Shell gas station on Don Mills Rd. — causing the driver to have to duck.
On July 10, R.R. also admitted recording A.P. as he shot up Williams Towing.
The teens return to court June 24 for a sentencing hearing — but who are we kidding? It won’t be much.