HUNTER EXCLUSIVE: Two murdered sons, two empty seats at Christmas
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This Christmas will be the sixth that Anthony McBean Sr. will carefully set a place for his son at the holiday table.
But Andre Phoenix’s seat will never be occupied again.
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This year, an additional spot at the table will be empty. That’s where his brother, Anthony McBean Jr., would have sat.
Instead, like a raw, gaping hole in the heart, neither son will physically attend.
Both were murdered on the streets of Toronto.
Cops say they know who cut down Anthony Jr., 42, on Sept. 30, 2024, in a strip plaza at Jane St. and Lawrence Ave. W. Warrants have been issued for second-degree murder for Ricardo Manuel Bailey, 35, and Debbie Jones, 42.
Homicide detectives believe the pair have fled to Jamaica.
But it is the murder of Andre Phoenix on Aug. 15, 2018, that haunts Anthony McBean Sr. It remains unsolved.
“Andre was completely innocent,” Det. Const. Andrew Doyle of the cold case unit told The Toronto Sun. “He was an upstanding citizen with a wonderful life ahead of him. This was just senseless.”
His father told the Sun that Andre was a “great child” who blossomed into a “great person.”
“He was the go-getter in the house. Even now, I go to the basement, knock on his door and realize he’s not there. I cannot describe the pain,” McBean Sr. said, adding it’s “harsh.”
“With my other son dying through the same violence, there is at least a bit of closure but you never get over this … it’s like part of your heart being removed. It’s like a double blow, it’s too much.”
At the time of the murder, Phoenix was employed and the father of an 18-month-old baby daughter. She will never know him except through photos and family lore.
He was walking through the parking lot of a Martin Grove Rd. plaza when a car approached him. One of the occupants opened fire, squeezing off multiple rounds.
The light-coloured, four-door sedan then fled west on John Garland Blvd. Phoenix died later in a local hospital. It remains unclear why he was in the neighbourhood and the purpose of his visit.
Murder leaves a filthy wake. Unsaid things, unanswered questions and a haunting that lasts for generations. This is the McBean family’s fate.
“I ask myself, ‘why? why?’ Christmas has been very different the last six years,” McBean Sr. said. “Revenge is out of the question. I still have sympathy in my heart, you know? But how could you just look at a person and start shooting them?
“And just drive off.”
This is sadly the world we are now living in. Decency has taken a powder, replaced by bloodlust and low-rent bravado.
The devastated dad is among the legion of Canadians who believe the government has been far too soft on criminals — particularly those using guns — for far too long.
“If you have an illegal gun it should be 25 years, automatic. The system needs to change and people need to speak out. This isn’t about race, we are all human beings created by God and we need to see justice done,” McBean Sr. added.
“It is getting worse and worse and worse. But no one is saying anything, nobody speaks about this.”
The father could be speaking about any one of the hundreds of homicides in this country but always circles back to his own family’s pain.
“How cold could a person be … we would get into schoolyard scuffles, none are brave enough to stand on their own without a gun,” he said.
“Whoever did this to Andre is a coward. How could they sleep? It’s cold-blooded. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go through this.”
McBean Sr. added: “The answer is hard work. Canada is a great country and people need to treasure the life they’ve been given by the creator.
“For Andre’s killers, I’m praying for them and their families. I hope they find it in their hearts to do the right thing.”
If you have any information regarding this case, please contact Homicide at 416-808-7400, or at homicide@torontopolice.on.ca. Or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416−222−TIPS (8477) or 222tips.com.
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