For someone who made criminal endeavours their life, Devon Brumble wasn’t very good at it.
A perusal of Toronto Sun files with a wink to Captain Google reveals the sordid tale.
Brumble was shot last Thursday at an underground parking garage in the Yonge St. and Sheppard Ave. W. area just after noon. He was taken to hospital but died Saturday.
A reputed member of the Galloway Boys street gang, Brumble was arrested in exotic locales like Fort Frances, Belleville and home in Scarborough. Drugs, guns, proceeds of crime and a litany of other felonious adventures.
In January, Brumble was charged with five counts of drug trafficking in Fort Frances. Cops seized $500,000 in cocaine, crack cocaine, oxycodone, fentanyl and morphine. Toss in $30,000 in cash and you have yourself a score.
There were also charges of possession of proceeds of crime and obstructing a peace officer.
Brumble was also busted in Thunder Bay in 2017. Cops seized more than $115,000 in cash and drugs, including heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and crack. He was charged with violating probation and recognizance orders.
But it was in Scarborough where Brumble first hit cops’ radar as a member of the Galloway Boys, a group of gangbangers linked to Toronto’s worst mass shooting on Danzig Ave in the summer of 2012 that left two dead and 23 wounded.
Toss in drugs, firearms and sex trafficking into the mix and you end up with murder. In that investigation, cops released a photo of Brumble, then 20 and a decade from his death.
So, there doesn’t seem to have been much time spent on reflection does there?
He was even mocked by Justice Fergus O’Donnell in 2013 over his efforts to acquire a gun.
“Devon Brumble wanted a pretty girl and, as is sometimes the case, he got most of what he wanted, however briefly, and a whole pile of trouble besides,” O’Donnell wrote.
Our hapless hero was supposed to be fixed up with “a pretty girl with a long nose and six teeth for $1,800. She was a bit old for him at .38, but his friend said she revolved around men.”
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Instead, the gun buy went south and Brumble was arrested. He was sentenced to a jail term of 18 months, with a one to one-and-a-quarter credit for time served, followed by a probation period of three years.
But if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again. Brumble was like a minor leaguer in the twilight of his career toiling in the Texas League, knowing nothing else and propelled by a love of the game.
There were no home runs in Brumble’s gangbanging. Bloop singles, fielder’s choice and the odd walk. If his record is any indication, he mostly struck out.
In January 2021, he was nabbed again in the early morning hours by cops in Belleville in a routine traffic stop. Cops found cash and a suspended driver named Devon Brumble. This time it was property obtained by crime under $5,000 and driving with a suspended licence.
Brumble likely didn’t know it last January, but his personal hourglass was running out of sand. Like too many other young men enticed into crime.
There is no gold watch, oldtimers day or hall of fame game — only a violent end.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7474, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), or online at 222tips.com.