Toronto man pleads guilty to manslaughter in deadly 2020 shooting spree
Elijah Simpson Sweeney, one of four suspects who walked into the courtyard of a North York housing complex and opened fire almost five years ago, killing an innocent man and wounding another, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault for his role in the apparent random shooting.
Simpson Sweeney, who is now 25 years old, was originally charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser charges.
Court heard he was not one of the shooters whose bullets struck 57-year-old Anthony Martin, who was killed, nor Taswrell Salmon, who survived. Both victims were among a group of people who were playing a game of dominoes at the time.
Simpson Sweeney has been in custody since Jan. 25, 2023, when he was arrested in North Bay by Peel Regional Police.
According to an agreed statement of facts read out in a downtown courtroom on April 8, 2021, arrangements were made for Simpson Sweeney to attend a Toronto police station to turn himself in.
On that same day, he left his residence and cut the ankle monitor that he was required to wear as part of an existing release order he was bound by at the time. Simpson Sweeney did not attend the police station, and efforts to locate him were unsuccessful. On April 26, 2021, a warrant for his arrest for murder and attempted murder was issued.
The facts state that on Sept. 24, 2020, during a span of two hours, there were three shootings in Toronto. Each shooting captured by video surveillance involved four masked men, at least three of them armed with firearms, travelling in a Toyota Corolla bearing a Pennsylvania licence plate.
Simpson Sweeney was one of the involved masked males in the final shooting at 89 Gosford Blvd., but the only man in the group carrying a shotgun.
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Video surveillance showed at least three of the four males carrying firearms, including Simpson Sweeney. The group fired numerous shots in the direction of the individuals in the courtyard. Martin was shot in the left buttock. The bullet travelled upwards and caused fatal hemorrhaging. Martin was pronounced dead at the scene. Salmon was shot underneath his right knee. He was rushed to hospital and survived, but the bullet remains in his leg.
Thirteen shell casings, including one casing from a shotgun, were recovered at the scene in the area where the masked shooters stood.
“Sweeney Simpson was a member and active participant in the group whose actions resulted in the unlawful death of Mr. Anthony Martin and wounding of Mr. Taswrell Salmon. However, the bullet that killed Martin and injured Salmon did not originate from Simpson Sweeney’s shotgun,” assistant crown attorney Robert Kenney told Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein.
Just one hour prior, at 7:30 pm, there was a shooting at a townhouse complex at 185 Galloway Road. Video surveillance shows a Toyota Corolla driving slowly through the complex, following the path of travel of a male pedestrian walking towards a residential unit. The car then stops and a single masked man is observed hanging out of the rear passenger side window, firing several rounds from a handgun. Twenty-seven muzzle flashes were seen.
“During the shooting, the front passenger door of the Toyota Corolla swings open. As the Toyota Corolla exits the townhouse complex after the shooting, the front passenger door remains open, and the outline of a long-barreled firearm is visible,” said Kenney. Seven casings from a handgun were located at the scene. The male pedestrian was shot in the left buttocks and the upper leg.
An hour earlier, at 6:25 p.m. in the area of 130 Driftwood Avenue, video surveillance shows two males exiting the rear of the Toyota Corolla, armed with handguns. The males fired several shots before running back into the car. No one was injured in this incident.
After the shooting on Gosford Boulevard, the suspects fled the scene in the Toyota Corolla, which was tracked to a townhouse complex on John Cabot Way. Five suspects can be seen later walking towards a building on Sheppard Ave West, including Simpson Sweeney, who walked with a straight and unbending leg, consistent with someone concealing a shotgun in their pant leg.
The five males were met by a sixth male who was later found to be a resident of the building. The sixth male provided a change of clothes to one of the suspects and took a pair of shoes from him. Later, that suspect was observed attending John Cabot Way, where the Toyota Corolla was parked. Moments later, the vehicle was set on fire.
When police later examined the torched vehicle, they found a spent casing that matched the bullet casings located on Gosford, Galloway and Driftwood.
In November 2020, Simpson Sweeney was arrested in relation to a separate investigation by Niagara police and later released on bail. At the time, investigators seized his cellphone. After receiving judicial authorization to search the contents of Simpson Sweeney’s phone, they found several pieces of evidence to suggest he was involved with the fatal shooting on Sept. 24, 2020.
The cellphone contained directions from the area on Gosford Boulevard where the shooting happened to John Cabot Way, using the Waze application. It also contained screenshots of various news reports detailing the homicide investigation, along with screenshots of Martin and the vehicle of interest released to the media the day after the homicide.
Goldstein has ordered a Morris report at the request of defence counsel Michael Coristine. The judge told court it could delay sentencing since the report, which considers how anti-black racism should be considered in sentencing, typically takes about a year to complete. Coristine said his client understood that.
A 17-year-old boy has already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in relation to the shooting of Martin. In December 2022, the teen was sentenced to the maximum sentence for a youth, seven years in prison. He also admitted to being at all three shootings.
Two other shooters and the getaway driver have not been identified. The sixth man, also a teen who admitted to setting the suspect vehicle on fire, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
A Canadian man has pleaded guilty to illegally photographing classified U.S. defence facilities at the Space Force military base in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Xiao Guang Pan, 71, of Brampton, Ont., pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawful photographing of military installations without authorization on three separate days in early January.
A U.S. District Court in Florida judge put Pan on probation for 12 months and immediately ordered him deported to Canada by U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement (ICE) officers under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, citing his violations of American espionage laws.
Pan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A U.S. Department of Justice official was unsure about where Pan is in the ICE deportation process.
Pan’s guilty plea and deportation come as anxiety grows among U.S. lawmakers and ordinary Americans about hundreds of unidentified drones flying over sensitive American military bases amid concerns about foreign surveillance and spying.
A copy of Pan’s plea agreement reveals a stark contrast between what Pan said he was doing in Florida in January, when he was stopped by police, versus what U.S. federal agents actually found on his drone, phone and storage devices after seizing them.
On an artist biography page published by the Brampton Arts Organization, Pan stated he was born in China in 1953, immigrated to Canada in 2001 and has lived in Brampton since 2003.
Pan worked as a Best Buy Canada technician for 18 years until retirement in 2022, the biography adds.
Pan entered U.S. via Detroit
Pan entered the U.S. on a tourist visa at the Ambassador’s Bridge in Detroit, Mich., on or about Nov. 2, 2024. The court documents don’t suggest what Pan was doing or where Pan travelled in November and December.
The retiree was charged by summons on Feb. 11 after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) detected drone activity near the Space Force Base and called in law enforcement on Jan. 7.
Brevard County Sheriffs responded. They saw Pan operating a DJI Mavic Pro 3 unmanned drone quadcopter from a parking lot in Port Canaveral and learned he’d been in the area for three days.
The local officers then tipped federal law enforcement agencies.
Federal agents caught the Brampton resident using his powerful unmanned drone and a separate camera with telephoto lenses to photograph and video classified military facilities and equipment near the Space Force base on Jan. 5, 6 and 7, without the base commander’s prior authorization as required under U.S. law.
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According to a statement of facts found in the plea agreement, which Pan signed and initialled on every page, U.S. federal agents interviewed him twice – no dates were given – and asked the Canadian what he was doing with the drone.
They also warned him: lying to federal agents is a federal crime in the U.S.
“Pan told the agents that he had flown his drone to take pictures of the beauty of nature, the sunrise, and the cruise ship port. He stated that he had not seen any launch pads and that he did not know that he was near a military installation,” the plea deal states.
Pan voluntarily submitted his devices to U.S. agents for a forensic data extraction.
That’s when the investigators found more than sunrises, nature and cruise ship videos.
The data showed Pan had flown his drone nine times and taken 1,919 photographs and videos during his three-day Florida visit, the plea deal states.
Of those 1,919 photos and videos, 243 photographs and 13 videos showed specific images of Space Force base military infrastructure and launch facilities, including fuel and munitions storage facilities, security checkpoints, and a Navy submarine platform, according to the plea agreement.
On Jan. 6, his second day of flying the drone quadcopter, Pan took nine videos and 166 photographs of Space Force installations.
This time, he launched his drone from a location several miles closer to the base; his photographs and videos captured the same military infrastructure as on Jan. 5, but in higher quality and from different angles, according to the plea agreement.
Pan also captured images and videos of mission control infrastructure and fuel and munitions facilities, including a photograph of a Space Launch Complex and payload processing facilities operated by two defence contractors.
On the third day of his drone flying, and before he was encountered by law enforcement, Pan recorded two more videos and took 56 photos.
Day 3 images included security checkpoints
His Day 3 images and videos showed roads, power distribution infrastructure, security checkpoints, mission control infrastructure, national security space launch infrastructure, fuel and munitions storage, and naval infrastructure, the plea agreement states.
After police stopped Pan on Jan. 7, federal agents interviewed him twice.
During those interviews, Pan was warned that lying to agents is a federal crime. He did so anyway, the plea deal suggests.
In addition to telling agents he flew his drone to record nature, sunrises, and cruise ships and didn’t know he was near a military base, Pan said his drone sends alerts and warnings to his handset and he received no alerts or warnings, the plea deal adds.
Investigators recovered flight log data from Pan’s quadcopter. It showed that on all three days he flew, the drone logged several alerts and sent operator messages about altitude and FAA airspace violations.
On Pan’s cell phone, agents also found several screenshots he created, including several Google Maps satellite overviews of Cape Canaveral. One screenshot taken Jan. 7 while Pan was at his drone launch location, prominently displayed the words “Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.”
Pan surrendered his $5,000 quadcopter
Pan was charged in February after a multi-agency probe led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Homeland Security, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
Pan surrendered his $5,000 quadcopter, control equipment and storage devices that housed his videos and photos to the U.S. authorities.
He is also banned from returning to the U.S. without prior consent from the Secretary of the Homeland Security department.
TORONTO – An old bat was a difference-maker for the Toronto Blue Jays in a wild 9-8 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night.
Ty France sparked an eighth-inning rally with a solo homer and Addison Barger emerged from a 2-for-30 slump with a two-run double to help the Blue Jays to their AL-best 40th comeback win of the year.
Barger said France “randomly decided” to use one of his old bats from the cage before his pinch-hit appearance.
“I haven’t seen the bat since last year and he had a homer with it,” Barger said. “And I was like, ‘Oh shoot, I’m going to use that.’ And it worked.”
Barger lined a slider from Michael Tonkin (2-1) off the top of the wall in right field to bring home Alejandro Kirk with the tying run and George Springer from first base with the go-ahead run.
Seranthony Dominguez (3-4) got two outs in the eighth inning for the win and closer Jeff Hoffman worked the ninth for his 29th save as Toronto (78-56) took the rubber game of the three-game series.
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Toronto improved its record at Rogers Centre to 44-22, the best home mark in Major League Baseball at the end of the game.
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Barger became a regular in the lineup early in the season after providing consistent pop at the plate. Despite his struggles in recent weeks, he remains unfazed by late-game pressure.
With runners in scoring position in the seventh inning or later this season, Barger is hitting .389 with a 1.161 OPS (on-base plus slugging).
“Addy’s got talent,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “He can do that. We’ve seen him do that, we’ve seen him hit home runs.
“I think it’s just the natural course of the season for a young guy and I think he’s navigating it pretty well.”
On the mound, Schneider went right back to Hoffman a night after he gave up two homers and blew his seventh save of the season.
“It’s like a quarterback throwing an interception,” Schneider said. “You’ve got to have a short memory and you’ve got to move on to the next thing. And you know, Hoff, like everybody else on this team, they move on to the next thing.”
The game had eight solo homers — four from each team — and Toronto clawed back from three deficits before taking its first lead in the eighth.
Only the Los Angeles Dodgers (41) have had more comeback wins.
“These guys do not quit,” Schneider said. “They do not give a (crap) who they’re playing against. They don’t care what the situation is. I love it.”
Andres Gimenez and Davis Schneider, with a pair, also went deep for Toronto. Byron Buxton, with two, Luke Keaschall and Brooks Lee homered for the Twins (60-73).
Toronto starter Eric Lauer allowed six earned runs and 10 hits over 4 2/3 innings. He had four strikeouts.
Minnesota starter Simeon Woods Richardson gave up five earned runs and five hits over 3 2/3 frames. He walked a pair and fanned two.
Toronto maintained its four-game lead on Boston in the American League East Division standings. The Red Sox edged Baltimore 3-2.
The Blue Jays will continue their six-game homestand Friday night against the MLB-leading Milwaukee Brewers. Shane Bieber (1-0, 1.50 earned-run average) is tabbed to start for Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
TORONTO – Addison Barger hit a two-run double in Toronto’s three-run eighth inning as the Blue Jays came back for a 9-8 win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night.
Barger drove a ball into the right-centre field gap to score Alejandro Kirk with the tying run and George Springer with the go-ahead run.
Seranthony Dominguez (3-4) got two outs in the eighth inning for the win and closer Jeff Hoffman worked the ninth for his 29th save as Toronto took the rubber game of the three-game series.
Each team hit four home runs. All eight blasts were solo shots.
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Davis Schneider, with a pair, Andres Gimenez and Ty France, who hit a pinch-hit homer to start the rally in the eighth, went deep for Toronto (78-56).
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Byron Buxton, with two, Luke Keaschall and Brooks Lee went deep for the Twins (60-73).
Toronto starter Eric Lauer allowed six earned runs and 10 hits over 4 2/3 innings. He had four strikeouts.
Minnesota starter Simeon Woods Richardson gave up five earned runs and five hits over 3 2/3 frames. He walked a pair and fanned two.
Michael Tonkin (2-1) blew the save and took the loss.
Toronto maintained its four-game lead on Boston in the American League East Division standings. The Red Sox edged Baltimore 3-2.
KEY MOMENT
Blue Jays centre-fielder Daulton Varsho put a charge into the sellout crowd of 42,361 with his catch against the wall in the second inning. He made another brilliant catch in virtually the same spot in the third.
KEY STAT
Toronto owns the best home record in the AL at 44-22.
UP NEXT
The Blue Jays will continue their six-game homestand Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers. Shane Bieber (1-0, 1.50 earned-run average) has been tabbed to start for Toronto.
The Twins will return home for a seven-game homestand starting Friday against the San Diego Padres.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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