HUNTER: Half of 2023 Toronto murder suspects were out on release
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“I avoid s*** because I’m scared of ME, not you … temper go from zero to prison real fast.” — post on accused killer Jordan O’Brien-Tobin’s Facebook page.
Bits of philosophy, inspirational and aspirational missives, and wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve.
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These are all part and parcel of many accused criminals’ social media strategies. Part loveable thug with a vision, part misunderstood boy, part … genius.
O’Brien-Tobin, 22, of no fixed address, is accused of stabbing to death 16-year-old Gabriel Magalhaes in an “unprovoked” attack while the boy waited for the train at the TTC’s Keele station.
As The Toronto Sun first reported on Tuesday, the transplanted Newfoundlander was out on numerous releases and one veteran detective described the tragic situation as a “total failure of the justice system.”
So far, Toronto has seen 12 homicides in 2023 and in at least half, the suspects were out on bail, parole or probation. Think it’s just the Big Smoke? It’s not. The situation is the same from Vancouver to Buena Vista.
On March 20, aspiring gangbanger Madar Hassan, 21, was taken off the board in a brazen daylight hit in the parking lot of Fairview Mall. Two others were shot in that incident but survived.
One of the suspects, Samir Mohamed Unoos, 25, was charged with second-degree murder and … failure to comply with a release order.]
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Take Ryan Cunneen while we’re at it. There was a warrant out for his arrest in another assault when — again, unprovoked — he allegedly pushed an unidentified 89-year-old woman to the ground downtown.
That was at 11:40 a.m. and Yonge and King streets.
She later died of her injuries in hospital. Cunneen now stands charged with manslaughter and the case is before the courts.
He was sprung on an undertaking in relation to an alleged assault in February 2020. Fast forward to May 2021, a bench warrant was issued for Cunneen’s arrest.
Cops didn’t catch up to him until the elderly woman was viciously pushed on Jan. 20.
And just to show you it’s not all about Toronto, the centre of the known universe, we give you Adam Odette.
The 37-year-old Oshawa man is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for the grisly stabbing murder of social worker Katie Kainz, 26. Another woman was also seriously injured in the bizarre rampage.
But compared to the others, Odette is a rock star. He has a tattoo on his forehead informing all and sundry that he is, in fact, “Legendary.”
At the time of the Kainz murder, he was out on probation for assault causing bodily harm.
None of the charges against any of the above-mentioned suspects has been proven in court.
On Jordan O’Brien-Tobin’s Facebook page, he informs us he moved from Newfoundland to Toronto on Aug. 24, 2020.
It’s tantalizing to think what was on his mind and what he could have possibly expected here. As most working stiffs will tell you, the streets ain’t paved with gold.
When a person takes the geographic cure for their woes, be it money, drugs, booze, women or a gumbo of all the above, the Rx seldom sticks. Instead, the problems follow.
Police sources told the Sun on Monday that “drugs and mental illness” were allegedly O’Brien-Tobin’s albatross.
If true, a new landscape didn’t appear to change that.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
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