This young Toronto father was randomly killed in ‘ruthless execution’ by a teen. A judge will decide whether it was first or second-degree murder
Ajay Simpson was 20 years old and a new father as he peacefully rode around a North York housing complex on a scooter late on a summer evening.
Suddenly, as captured on chilling surveillance footage, a car pulled up at the complex in the Jane Street and Falstaff Avenue area and four armed and masked people jumped out.
While the other three quickly fired their guns indiscriminately and returned to the stolen vehicle, a 14-year-old boy in the passenger seat set his sights on Simpson. He chased him through the complex’s grounds, shooting him and bringing him to the ground. He then approached the injured Simpson lying on the sidewalk and shot him at close range, ultimately killing him.
There’s no evidence the two even knew each other, as it would appear that Simpson was shot that night on June 24, 2024, for no reason other than the fact that he was there.
“This is a simple plan to shoot and kill somebody at the complex,” Crown attorney James Frost said Wednesday during closing arguments at the boy’s judge-alone murder trial.
“It’s not about finding the victim in terms of his personal identity. It’s about acquiring a target.”
As Superior Court Justice Peter Bawden put it himself: “It is entirely an opportunistic shooting of a randomly selected victim. That’s what I see.”
There’s no dispute that the now-16-year-old boy — the only person arrested in the shooting and who can’t be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act — killed Simpson. The only issue for Bawden to decide is whether the boy committed first- or second-degree murder; he had attempted to plead guilty to the latter, but it was rejected by the Crown, which argues the killing was planned and deliberate.
Dressed in a dark blue suit and glasses, the boy sat between his lawyers Tania Bariteau and Deepak Vadera on Wednesday and occasionally looked around the courtroom as Simpson’s relatives watched from the public gallery.
Frost and co-counsel Ellen An argued that the car’s other occupants were carrying out a plan to recklessly fire their guns on the complex’s grounds, possibly due to some neighbourhood rivalry, but that the accused boy developed a plan to kill just minutes before getting out of the car when Simpson navigated closer to the vehicle.
Frost said the accused treated Simpson like a “hunter with prey,” focusing on the victim as he became separated from other complex residents gathered at a gazebo that night. “What we see on video is he is demonstrating that he is an independent operator: willing and able to execute a very ruthless execution,” Frost said.
Bariteau argued there was no plan for murder. She contended that the evidence points to all four occupants being there to shoot up the neighbourhood and not necessarily injure anyone, but that her client suddenly developed the intent for murder after seeing Simpson. In other words, it was an impulsive act in the heat of the moment, the defence argued.
“It’s only when he continues and sees Mr. Simpson that he switches trajectory,” Bariteau said. “It’s in that spur of the moment, when adrenalin is running high, that (the accused) targets him, has the intent, and proceeds to kill Mr. Simpson.”
Bawden seemed to have some difficulty with the defence argument regarding the lack of a plan for murder.
“Is it reasonably possible that a 14-year-old boy suddenly decides on his own, as he sees an individual separated from the group: ‘I’m going to go well beyond what I planned with my confederates and instead I’m going to chase this individual down, shoot him to the ground, and kill him?’”
Bariteau argued that it was a reasonable possibility. And that even if her client did develop a plan to kill just minutes before exiting the car, there was insufficient time for him to deliberate on it.
Loved ones told the Star in 2024 that Simpson had beenwith his newborn daughter and friends just before the shooting happened. He had just been hired by the city to work in a community centre. He was described by friends as humble, funny, and caring. He loved playing basketball and spending time cooking Jamaican food with his mother, Natoya Harriott.
She recalled how Simpson would always buy plenty of presents for his younger sister at Christmas.
“He spoiled her,” Harriott said. “That’s why I know he would’ve been a good dad.”