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2 men guilty in murder of Toronto youth worker Thane Murray

On Saturday, a Toronto jury found Noah Anderson and Junior Jahmal Harvey guilty of first-degree murder, along with two counts of attempted murder, for the 2021 shooting of Thane Murray and his friends in Regent Park. They will receive automatic life sentences.

Noah Anderson and Junior Jahmal Harvey guilty of 1st-degree murder, after jury delivered verdict Saturday

Ethan Lang · CBC News ·
27-year-old Thane Murray was shot and killed in 2021 in Toronto's Regent Park. Three men have now been arrested in connection with his death, with a fourth suspect still being sought.
Thane Murray, 27, was shot and killed by Noah Anderson, Junior Jahmal Harvey and two other unknown suspects in September 2021. (Toronto Police Services)

Two men have been found guilty of murdering a Regent Park youth worker and attempting to murder two of his friends in a 2021 shooting, following a decision in a Toronto court Saturday night.

Noah Anderson, 23, and Junior Jahmal Harvey, 23, were among four masked men who opened fire downtown in a parking lot in Regent Park on Sept. 18, 2021, killing 27-year-old Thane Murray and injuring two of his friends, a jury found. 

The group fired 59 bullets from their handguns that night. Murray was hit 14 times, including in the head, and died at the scene. His two childhood friends both survived the shooting, but one was in a coma for weeks.

On Saturday, after a day and a half of deliberation, the jury found both Anderson and Harvey guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. They will receive automatic life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Police officers were called to Oak Street and Sumach Street shortly before 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 18, according to Toronto Police Service duty inspector Michael Williams. Williams said they found three men, all suffering gunshot wounds. One man died at the scene.
Anderson, Harvey and two other suspects opened fire in a Regent Park parking lot in September 2021, killing one and injuring two others. The Crown argued during the trial that the shooting was motivated by a neighbourhood rivalry. (Jeremy Cohn/CBC News)

Determining the identity of the shooters was key during the trial. 

The crown had built a circumstantial case based on surveillance video tracking Anderson, Harvey and the two others shooters driving to and from Regent Park in a Nissan Altima rented under Anderson's name.

Video shown to the jury captured the men walking to the car parked on nearby McGill Street after leaving the Chelsea Hotel, where Anderson had rented a room, shortly before the shooting. Footage also captured the men returning in the same car and parking on the same street 30 minutes after the shooting and reentering the hotel.

Footage also showed that the men changed clothes and shoes before and after the murder.

The Crown argued the motive for the attack was a neighbourhood rivalry.

The Crown had played a rap song for the jury, found on Anderson's phone and recorded 10 days after the shooting, in which they argued lyrics credited to Anderson and Harvey described the murder. In the song, titled "Peppered," the rappers call themselves the "RP killas" — RP referring to Regent Park — and rap about a head shot that "sent that boy straight to Jesus." 

Anderson and Harvey were both 20 at the time of the shooting.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ethan Lang

Reporter

Ethan Lang is a reporter for CBC Toronto. Ethan has also worked in Whitehorse, where he covered the Yukon Legislative Assembly, and Halifax, where he wrote on housing and forestry for the Halifax Examiner.

    With files from Jasmin Seputis

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