HUNTER: Wild West shootout coughs up teen suspected of killing poker star
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The kid is 16 years old now and, according to cops, he’s already made his bones.
In old-school mafia parlance, he’s allegedly put someone on ice and sent them to the morgue, the crematorium or the cemetery.
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HUNTER: Wild West shootout coughs up teen suspected of killing poker star Back to video
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Now, he is one of the rock stars busted in the Dodge City-style shootout Monday night at a downtown music studio. Twenty-three were arrested and amongst them was the teen wonder who calls Brampton home.
He had been wanted for the unsolved April murder of a professional poker player named Matthew Bergart, 30, at a townhouse on Lake Shore Blvd. W. at Long Branch Ave.
Oh, the kid had three previous gun-prohibition orders. How’s that working out for us?
The targeted heist zeroed in on the townhouse’s other occupant, Bergart, who was visiting and became collateral damage.
A shallow dive into the backgrounds of the accused in the big shootout that injured no one will tell you much about the Canadian justice system in 2024.
Four of the others arrested as a result of the bullet-fueled Donnybrook were on bail. One was even wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet.
A police undercover car was hit several times as a result of the birthday bash coming off the rails. Cops putting their finger in the dyke once again recovered 16 guns along with a rich cache of ammo.
“This scene was armed for war and war is what broke out,” one cop told the Toronto Sun‘s Joe Warmington.
And now the teen is charged with second-degree murder in the senseless slaying of Bergart. In addition, the boy was hammered with a slew of firearms-related charges
For Bergart, it was his lousy luck to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Cops never revealed exactly what the child protege was after in the heist.
Cops say three people entered the Etobicoke townhouse and demanded valuables. What happened afterward isn’t clear, but there was a struggle and Bergart was shot several times.
He died later in hospital.
Bergart’s death was a stupid, senseless murder of the kind that has become terrifyingly common. Young guns — thanks to the woeful Youth Criminal Justice Act — have no fear of consequences.
Three years, a shiny new rep, and you’re back in business.
“They will just idly pull out a gun and start shooting. People in power are clueless, they are more worried about bike lanes than murder,” one detective told me this week.
“It’s a train with no brakes. It’s obvious to everyone except the mayor and prime minister.”
In the past week, detectives have been busting teen thugs lusting for riches and reputation, left, right and centre. One boy, 16, was pinched in a routine stop and coughed up a gun. He was also hit with two counts of failing to comply.
A Montreal lad, 16, was nabbed for having a gun and, from the greatest hits package, fail to comply with a release order.
A post-pubescent pair — aged 16 and 17 — were arrested in a downtown heist and also hit with a slew of firearms-related charges. Toss in a fail-to-comply chaser for both.
“The number of young psychopaths running around the streets is just crazy,” one criminal lawyer told me.
“Not a thought about what they’re doing, they’re just brazen. They just don’t care about the person they’re killing or even the fact that they’re going to jail.”
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