Crime

Two teens sat in the prisoner’s box wearing blank expressions as they watched chilling videos of themselves carrying out a series of brazen contract shootings two years ago — a stark illustration of recent warnings that young hired guns are behind cycles of bloodshed in the Toronto area.

Prosecutors played the videos on Wednesday at the downtown Toronto courthouse during the sentencing hearing of R.R. and K.A., two teens who pleaded guilty earlier this month to multiple counts of reckless discharge of a firearm and accessory after the fact to reckless discharge of a firearm. The hearing took place at the same time a funeral was underway for Toronto police Const. Marc Pinizzotto, 43, allegedly shot to death by a 19-year-old working for a gun-for-hire network.

Not the brightest hires.

A ransom note related to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie – the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie – said the 84-year-old had died, CNN and other news organizations are reporting, citing law enforcement sources.

Some media outlets had previously reported receiving ransom notes tied to the case in the days after Guthrie’s disappearance in early February from her home in the foothills just outside Tucson, Arizona.

A busy Montreal neighbourhood went into lockdown Monday after an armed standoff at a hotel in Côte-des-Neiges left a police officer, a civilian and a suspect dead. Another officer and a bystander were injured in the attack.

The shooting marked the third time an officer in Canada was killed in less than two weeks, raising questions about whether violence against officers is increasing. It also came one day after two RCMP officers responding to a call for help in Melville, Sask., were shot and injured.

But researchers who track police deaths say the number of officers killed on duty this year remains within the historical range — and officers are less likely to die as a result of violence now than in past decades.

Canada faces a serious crime problem, but many Canadians believe crime is relatively low compared with the United States. That perception largely stems from a misunderstanding of how crime is measured.

How much of that is crime tourism and diversity crime?

Around 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning in March, a gunman got out of a car on a quiet street near the waterfront in Oakville. Almost immediately, he opened fire.

An accomplice stood beside him, apparently filming the attack on a phone as the gunman shot at a stone house with a double-car garage, according to neighbours who later watched the incident unfold on their security footage.

Suddenly there was a flash from across the street. Someone was firing at the pair. They scattered.

Last August, Decarlos Brown Jr.—a mentally ill repeat offender out on bail—allegedly stabbed 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska to death on a Charlotte light rail train. Video of the shocking murder prompted widespread outrage, pushing the North Carolina legislature to pass a law named for Zarutska and meant to overhaul the state’s criminal justice and mental-health system.

The 14-year-old Pickering teen was obsessed with serial killers and told his gaming friend that unlike his heroes, he wouldn’t get caught.

Thankfully, he was wrong — but not before he took the life of an innocent stranger who was simply outside raking the leaves.

Given the perp is both Muslim and a minor he’ll get a ludicrous sentence reduced by time served.

Billionaire businessman Frank Stronach, who was accused of sexually assaulting several women decades ago, has been found guilty of sexual assault and indecent assault.

Stronach, who is 93, pleaded not guilty to 12 charges stemming from alleged incidents involving seven complainants.

Seeking “approval” from gangs, Awet Asfaha walked up to a total stranger on Mount Olive Drive in 2009 and pumped three shots into his back, the convicted murderer has testified in his bid to get early parole from a life sentence.

“To gain stripes,” Awet Asfaha told a jury at his “faint hope” hearing, explaining the shooting was like an initiation into gang membership. “To be taken more serious.”

Poor baby Preston didn’t have much of a start in life. His mother Sarah, now 42, was jailed aged 14 for the 1998 torture and murder of a pensioner. Preston was, justifiably, taken from her after birth. Given these unpropitious circumstances, it was the job of the state – here Oldham council – to give him a fair start in life. To begin with, that’s what happened; a decent foster family looked after him.

Peak woke wickedness. This poor child was horribly abused, much like the Two mom’s case in Ontario and the Atlanta nightmare.

Gangs like B.C.’s Brothers Keepers and Toronto’s Driftwood Crips work closely together in the rap music business and in criminality, an Ontario expert says.

Andrew Hammond, a sergeant with the Toronto Police Service and president of the Organization for National Gang Information and Awareness (ONGIA), told Postmedia News that Canadian street gangs have broadened their operations both across Canada and internationally.

“This has been building for the last six, seven or eight years,” said Hammond. “The reach of these gang members now, it’s national, it’s international.”

The RCMP is seeking access to messages and photos on a cellphone belonging to former Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek as part of a corruption investigation that’s probing whether a planning consultant offered to pay city councillors in exchange for helping a rezoning application get passed, court documents show.

Federal Mounties publicly disclosed the investigation involving Ms. Gondek and David White – principal of CivicWorks, a company that helps developers navigate city hall – in a June 2 application to the Alberta Court of Justice that requests the extension of a warrant allowing investigators to keep the former mayor’s iPhone in police detention.