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But this 12-year-old is charged with second-degree murder and five violent robberies. And we don’t really know how to profile them, apart from the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which deems that anyone aged 12 or older can be charged with a criminal offence.

Earlier this year, another 12-year-old pleaded guilty to stabbing a cousin to death for no reason that was ever offered in court — believed to be Toronto’s youngest convicted murderer.

Given the paucity of information that was provided by police at a Monday press conference — because they are compelled by law to steer clear of any details that might identify the accused — it’s near impossible to do anything other than speculate.

Why was a 12-year-old even hanging around with a 20-year-old — Isaiah Byers, charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two counts of assault with a weapon, three counts of robbery — in the first place?

What was the relationship between the adult and the boy?

Where were the boy’s parents or guardian and how could they have not noticed that a child isn’t at home, in bed, around 5:30 in the morning?

Why would a boy and a man have targeted a string of homeless people and elderly people for violent attacks when the robberies were so petty? It’s well-established now that crime rings use minors to commit home invasions and carjackings precisely because of their tender years, recognizing the judicial consequences will be minimal. But those are crimes of profit, not random mayhem.

And, most disturbingly, what has become of us in Toronto? Because this crime spree, while unusual in its details, is hardly an aberration in this city these days.

“This is really a call to action with all our community partners to make sure we find a way to intervene when young people are involved with these types of horrendous crimes,’’ Deputy Chief Rob Johnson told reporters. “If you look at the last little while, the young people we have charged with carjackings, home invasions, all types of serious crime, it is concerning.”

It is of little solace to a victim that, statistically, key crime metrics have decreased this year, continuing a downward trend. Yet youths have been charged in eight of Toronto’s 31 homicides thus far in 2025. A 12-year-old — out on bail — was last week charged with attempted murder in a Markham shooting three weeks previously.

“It’s part of a larger picture when we look at the young people that are involved in this type of criminal act,’’ Johnson continued. “The fact that they can pick up a gun and escalate, at some point someone should have intervened, there should have been some signals somewhere.’’

A gun. Or a knife. Or a hammer.

Here, a hammer was the weapon of choice — handiness maybe — in the Aug. 31 rampage that unspooled in less than two-and-a-half hours in downtown Toronto.

The sun hadn’t even come up yet, 5:45 a.m., when the two accused approached a homeless man sitting on park bench near Yonge and Dundas Streets and, without provocation, began beating him with the hammer. That victim managed to get away and the extent of his injuries are not known, according to police.

Just minutes later, at 5:52 a.m., as the suspects walked westwards on Dundas, they homed in on another homeless man at Bay street and beat him with the hammer. He also was able to escape, treated in hospital for serious injuries.

At 6:08 a.m., a 62-year-old homeless man was sleeping on a bench in Nathan Phillips Square, when set upon by the miscreants and “violently beaten.” He was taken to hospital with serious injuries but released. Days later, he’d be found outside without vital signs, first responders unable to resuscitate him with life-saving measures. Investigators have determined his cause of death was related to the attack.

Three down for the marauders as they then headed north, approaching a 63-year-old male near Yonge and Gerrard Streets, at 6:25 a.m., grabbing his phone. When the man tried to get it back, he was pushed to the ground and the suspects fled.

Not done yet, the attackers moved on to Yonge and College Streets. At 8:07 — after taking a considerable rest from their frenzy, perhaps because they had not yet come upon another suitable victim — they honed-in on an individual and asked to use his phone. When the man declined, one of the suspects allegedly slapped the phone out of his hand and threw an object at him.

It was only because a pair of sharp-eyed officers nearby saw this incident that the suspects were halted in their berserk orgy of violence and arrested.

Byers, according to court documents, was already out on bail, previously charged with two counts of mischief stemming from a July 25 incident where he allegedly damaged a pay phone and obstructing TTC operations at a subway station, arrested against a month later, two more counts of mischief, accused of damaging a vehicle window and obstructing a police officer.

Released on bail, of course, three days later.

Both Byers and the boy were out on bail when the Aug. 31 crimes occurred. Both are now in custody

A very angry young man, it would seem, inclined to pointless mischief. Some will doubtless claim this might indicate mental illness, or perhaps being high on drugs. Mental instability, however, is too often a cop-out for violence in every measure of degree.

It’s the smaller incremental incidents of urban disorder and havoc — even more than the dramatic murder — that eat away at a city’s collective sense of safety.

Over and over again, innocents just going about their ordinary lives, are victimized by people perceived to be acting dangerously, potentially threatening, on the street or on a subway platform or on a bus.

In the United States, after mass shootings, politicians and officials always come forward to say: This is not who we are. But that is what they are. And this is now what we are, in Toronto, in the GTA, in towns and cities across the country.

And we have no clue how to reverse random crime, as sociologists and activists align against the structure of law enforcement: the police chiefs and victim spokespeople who have been pleading for bail reform, for a second take on a Youth Criminal Justice Act that generally mitigates against misconduct.

In the arrests announced Monday, the alleged culprits clearly targeted the homeless and those likely to be cowed, whether as a tactic or out of sheer malice.

That can’t be addressed by improving the circumstances of the unhoused, though already the crimes are being shape-shifted to suit a particular agenda. Homelessness is in itself a blight, of course, but vagrancy and encampments are also a source of fear for the community.

These accused may have seen themselves as vigilante warriors or they were just in it for the thrill, preying on the weak and vulnerable. That’s a distinct pathology.

“You have a 12-year-old, we’ve had a number of incidents in the past couple of weeks, you just shake your head,’’ said Johnson. “It’s unbelievable and this has to stop.’’

Except it’s all too believable and it won’t stop.