Second-degree murder charges laid in Wasaga Beach stabbing
Ontario Provincial Police have charged two men with second-degree murder in a deadly weekend stabbing in Wasaga Beach.
Police say 23-year-old Mustafa Khaleel was found dead on Beach Area 1 at about 12:40 a.m Sunday.
A 21-year-old Toronto man and a 25-year-old Brampton man are charged with Khaleel’s death and have been remanded into custody. Police say they are withholding the suspect’s names to protect the integrity of the investigation.
Det.-Inst. Martin Graham says there’s no evidence Khaleel knew his alleged killers before the weekend but says the violence was not random.
“It seems to have occurred between two groups of people that happened to be on the beach late on the evening of Saturday into Sunday,” Graham explains.
Police say there were as many as 30 people on the beach at the time. It’s unclear how many of them may have been involved in the fight and how many were bystanders.
Two other people were hurt in the brawl. While they weren’t stabbed, their injuries were serious enough for trips to the hospital. They were treated and released.
Police have some sense of what was behind the confrontation but are not sharing that information.
A number of people who own and work at businesses near the beachfront describe the weekend violence as rare but not a surprise.
Shawn Harris, manager at the Shore Store, has noticed a change the last two summers. He says fewer families are settling in for a day in the sun, and more younger visitors are getting a little too loose.
“They come, they make a bunch of mistakes, they tear things up, and then they leave,” Harris says. “It’s an amusement park here. But it’s become more volatile.”
Harris and employees at other local businesses believe hostility pent-up during the pandemic may be driving some of the rowdyism.
Harris describes clashes over COVID-19 protocols on the sand.
Several business owners feel an increased presence from OPP or bylaw officers could bring down the temperature.
“Just showing their presence for five-ten minutes—‘we’re here, please don’t destroy our stuff. This is our hometown’,” Harris says.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.