Not guilty verdicts in fatal shooting of 11-year-old Toronto boy Ephraim Brown
Posted December 13, 2010 4:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A jury has found two Toronto men not guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of an 11-year-old boy who was killed at an outdoor birthday party.
Ephraim Brown had been allowed to stay up later than usual for the party when he was killed in the crossfire when shots rang out in the early hours of July 22, 2007.
Monday a jury returned not guilty verdicts against Gregory Sappleton, 24, and Akiel Eubank, also 24.
The jury heard that Eubank was a member of a gang called Five Point Generalz, and the Crown alleged Sappleton was a member of a rival gang — Baghdad Crew.
Police have said Ephraim was enjoying the night with siblings and cousins at the birthday party for two 18-year-old girls when gatecrashers began arriving.
The crowd behind their Sheppard Ave. W townhouse complex in northwest Toronto swelled to as many as 70 people — including some from rival gangs.
Around 1 a.m., as many as a dozen shots rang out in a passageway between the townhouses. At least one bullet apparently tore through Ephraim’s neck, fatally wounding the boy described by his family as a polite, basketball-loving joker.
The killing came just two months after Grade 9 student Jordan Manners, 15, was shot to death at his high school in the same region of the city.
It prompted reaction from the province, with Ontario’s attorney general using the senseless death to renew calls for a federal ban on handguns.