

Vidya Kauri, CP24.com





A second 14-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with a series of violent purse-snatching incidents in downtown Toronto.

The Toronto Police Service had arrested another 14-year-old boy on Tuesday and notified his mother. Police said they had surveillance camera images of the underage suspects.

Each of the teenagers has been charged with two counts of robbery. They cannot be identified publicly as per the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

On Tuesday, police had issued a public safety alert after four women in their 20s were robbed on Sunday between 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. near Bathurst and Front streets. Some were physically assaulted and some were threatened with a gun, according to police.

In one incident, on Portugal Square near Adelaide Street, two suspects demanded a woman’s purse. One of them produced a gun and shot rounds into the ground away from the woman.

In another incident near Wellington Street and Spadina Avenue, police say the suspects pushed a woman to the ground, grabbed her purse and ran away.

One of the women the suspects tried to rob on Queen’s Quay West resisted handing over her purse. This time, the suspects grabbed her in a headlock, told her they had a gun, forced her to the ground and dragged her. The woman suffered cuts and bruises, and the suspects finally gave up and fled the area.

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