Melissa Alexander was leaving work at the Strathcona Hotel shelter when she heard a commotion and went to make sure none of her residents were in trouble.
It was approaching midnight on Dec. 17, 2022, when she said she came upon a group of loud, cursing girls who were kicking, stomping and spitting at something.
They were acting, she said, “like when you’re in the wild, like one of the animals had prey and everybody was crowded” around it.
It was only after pushing them off that Alexander said she realized there was a man lying on the ground, bleeding from the face. It was 59-year-old Ken “Kenny” Lee – a former resident of the Strathcona Hotel who had been recently discharged.
Alexander was testifying at the judge-alone trial for two of the girls, aged 14 and 16 at the time, who have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Prosecutors allege the youngest is the one who fatally stabbed Lee during the swarming. She attempted to plead guilty to manslaughter but it was rejected by the Crown.
The shelter worker told Superior Court Justice Phillip Campbell that she didn’t see any weapons and didn’t realize Lee had been fatally wounded.
Alexander got into a verbal altercation with the girls, she said, as she followed them out of the parkette to the stairs that led down to the PATH tunnel to Union Station.
“They were cursing me, they were calling me names,” she recalled.
In reply, she demanded to know why they would attack someone.
“You guys have no home training, why would you guys do that?” Alexander recalled asking them. “You have no (good) behaviour.”
When she left the girls and returned to the site of the swarming, she found Lee “slouched over” on the steps, blood running down his face.
Alexander said she went to flag down an ambulance to treat what she thought were minor injuries. The next day, she was shocked to learn from her manager that Lee had died.
“I’m like, ‘No, that’s impossible. When I left him with the paramedics, he was alive.’”
Eight girls between 13 and 16 were arrested shortly after the attack. Three have pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a fourth to assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm. All have been sentenced to probation.
The remaining two teens go on trial before a jury in May.