Killing of Jane Creba (Boxing Day Shooting)

On December 26, 2005, a shooting broke out on Yonge Street in downtown Toronto, one of the city's busiest shopping corridors, just a few blocks north of the Toronto Eaton Centre. Jane Creba, a 15-year-old grade 10 student at Riverdale Collegiate Institute, was shopping with her sister and was exiting a Pizza Pizza on the west side of the street when the gunfight erupted. A bullet passed through her upper torso and lodged in her clothing; it was later recovered at the hospital. She was taken to St. Michael's Hospital and died during emergency surgery. Six other bystanders—four men and two women—were also wounded.

Within an hour of the shooting, police arrested two men on gun charges at Castle Frank subway station: Andre Thompson, 20, who was on probation and had recently been released from Maplehurst Prison following a convenience-store robbery conviction, and Jorrell Simpson-Rowe, 17. Thompson declined a bail hearing.

Toronto Police formed "Project Green Apple" (named after Creba's favourite food) to investigate. On June 13, 2006, police conducted raids at 14 locations across Toronto, arresting six men and two teenagers connected to two different street gangs. By December 2007, ten people had been charged with murder or manslaughter, including Jorrell Simpson-Rowe, Tyshaun Barnett, Louis Woodcock, and Jeremiah Valentine, all charged with second-degree murder. One teenager charged with manslaughter was exonerated on October 25, 2007, following a preliminary hearing.

On December 7, 2008, a jury convicted Jorrell Simpson-Rowe of second-degree murder; in April 2009 he was sentenced as an adult to life imprisonment with no parole eligibility for seven years. In November 2009, manslaughter charges against four other individuals were dropped due to insufficient prospects for conviction. In December 2009, Jeremiah Valentine pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 12 years. In April 2010, a jury found Louis Woodcock and Tyshaun Barnett guilty of manslaughter—not second-degree murder—as well as four counts each of aggravated assault relating to other wounded bystanders. Valentine was later released on parole; in July 2025 he was charged with first-degree murder in connection with a shooting in Montreal.

The case drew intense national media coverage during a year in which Toronto recorded 80 homicides and a record 52 shooting deaths, contributing to 2005 being labelled the "year of the gun." The case influenced debate in the concurrent 2006 Canadian federal election on gun crime and street violence. Subsequent commentary, including a 2016 book by author Anita Arvast, examined issues of systemic discrimination in the charges and convictions and questioned the framing of the incident as gang rivalry, as well as the disproportionate media attention Creba's death received relative to other, similarly violent deaths of people of colour.