TORONTO, Ont. – A 20-year-old man is facing seven charges after a stabbing aboard a TTC train Wednesday night.
Cassim Celani Cummings of Toronto was arrested Friday and faces seven charges including attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
Cummings will appear at College Park court Saturday.
Police said a 45-year-old Barrie man was stabbed on a train near Davisville station in what appeared to be an unprovoked attack.
According to police, the suspect got on a southbound train at Eglinton station just after 10 p.m. Wednesday and began harassing and yelling at passengers.
The victim was stabbed when he stood up as the accused approached him.
The victim was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
The man — who asked that his name not be released — is recovering in hospital, according to Sunnybrook spokesperson Laura Bristow.
The man released a statement thanking staff at Sunnybrook, Toronto police and the TTC following the arrest.
“My family and I wish to publicly thank those individuals who came to my aid and offered help to a complete stranger. It is with sincere appreciation that I offer this thanks to those who put my life ahead of their own personal safety,” he said in a statement.
“For that I am grateful and hope their actions serve as a reminder that people in this city still care and that a strong sense of community was evident that night in the subway.”
Cummings has had 19 convictions from Scarborough to Etobicoke, and his mother had requested a mental health assessment in the past, police said.
“All I need is for the public to know that my son is sick,” Cummings’ mother told CityNews in a phone interview.
“He’s schizophrenic, he’s bipolar and he’s psychotic. This is what he was diagnosed with. He should have been on medication. He’s not taking his medication.”
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justice system lacks justice!!! before letting criminals and mentally challenged guys, they should ask thousand questions to themselves. what the use of arresting them and letting off without proper punishment…… put them behind bars for 25 years and life imprisonment for murders without parole.Oh Canada!! where you are heading to!!
Problem is, he’ll be freely out and about in no time. We have no justice system, unfortunately.
New this kid back in highschool. He was always a quite guy, never caused to much trouble other than the casual authoritarian disobedience. Shocked to hear what happened, hope the victim makes it out alive and fine.
I guess we all missed where the mother was trying to get help with her son as he is mentally ill. We are making all these horrible comments as to what this young man did, and should have done and missing the over all point…he is ill! To see your child born innocently in this harsh world and then make some terrible choices that led him to these type of crimes is only felt by the parents! That was not their hopes and dreams where their son came into the world.
What we shoudl be angry at is the root cause that direct these young men to these horrible, senseless crimes…do we really want to face the fact!? Then it would means removing some of those drugs and we so freely allowed and our children so freely get hooked on…they do create a crazy generation…but wait…the “best” is yet to come…smh.
People like you are the reason things are out of control.
Everybody’s a victim in your mind, SMH.
Enough is enough, lock these turds up forever and a day.
And what if it was your son, Joe…or brother…we would think twice wouldn’t we…smh.
Miltm.
I am disturbed as you are about this growing violence in our GTA. Your suggested eye for an eye or law of the jungle approach simply stated, breeds more violence. Furthermore, there have been great efforts to discourage bullying, Did you see AC360 special on bullying last night? as hard as it is, it doesn’t make sense to act the same way.
Efforts like this and so so many others are helping to educate youth and provide us all with hope of change. Try to be patient knowing full well there will be other victims. Sadly it takes time.
The cops need to add another charge to him for that hairdo!
680 staffers, please keep us updated on this upstanding young man, obviously I am being sarcastic but I would like to request you keep on top of this story. I like many others are very interested to hear the outcome after all the court proceedings have concluded.
My bet is “insane plea” and a few months in a nice plush rehab facility.
So let’s ask ourselves why would he or any other one re-offend? Of course they/he will, 3 meals and a warm bed for a while is not punishment.
My fear is this will only get worse as these guys don’t have fear of anything or anyone.
15-20 years ago there was respect for the police and yes fear but that fear kept us inline.
Loosen the strings on the officers a bit and you would see a difference in less than a year.
I don’t know if violence again violence will bring something good. Probably not. The problem is that, almost every one of those youths, has a gun or a knife today. But you and me, we are not allowed to carry anything, not even a pepper spray, for defense against a knife. And that’s unfair.
Can’t tell how many times I have been harrased my men using the TTC. I won’t go on it. I would rather walk 5km to and from work to avoid this type of behavior. We are suppose to sit still and be quiet when someone is harrasing us because we just never know what they are capable of doing and its just not right. The justice system is a complete utter joke at times it would probably a big help to get rid of some of the criminals and people of bad moral who work in it. Only then can they serve and protect and not just the people who they know best but everyone deserves fair treatment. People who commit these types of crimes should not be walking our streets at all unfortunately
@ Human I bet the Father hasn’t been around for years.
If you were this THING’S father would YOU hang around?
This sickens me. I take that line every night going home from a long days work. That’s the last thing people need. I’ve seen this harassing behaviour on 2 occassions. A man with a hood will taunt people and ask “what the F are you looking at”. Completely unprovoked. Please people, beware. There are crazies out there, believe it or not. Stay safe. P.
I have seen this guy, too…on the YUS line. When I saw him, I stayed away because he seemed to be up to something. If your suspicious, follow your gut instincts – be aware of surroundings, and don’t be shy to get off at a station stop or remove yourself from an area on the train because you suspect someone is up to something, because you never know. You have control over your actions but you don’t have control over someone’s actions.
Having a bigger police state isn’t the answer to keeping criminals at bay. Having the right to self defence and to help those in the community defend an attack with lawful force to equalize the criminal is the only way to go, you people have to understand that these criminals are cowards on the inside and the moment someone is given a right to use force against them when they are being provocative and harmful or showing intent to do harm, they will think twice of suffer a civilian frenzy over their heads.
Seriously??? Become a society where you fight violence with violence? That is absolutely nuts!! The police know who the gangs are. My belief is….track them down – put them in jail. No trial. They live by the gun…they do not have any rights left. One thing I do agree with you on…they are cowards. If you do put up a fight against one or a few of them. Who suffers? You do. They have their buddies…you then become a target or your loved ones do. That is how they operate. It is a horrible consequence and this has been going on from way back when. Get the bloody guns off the street. How many more innocent people have to die???? Either at your hand – or theirs?
This is the reason why people need to be allowed to take action in defence, we should be allowed to carry some sort of weapon as self defence, self defence to even the odds when criminals usually carry knives we should be allowed to have a choice in weapons that can even things out. This will send a signal to waiting-to-be-criminals and they will think twice before trying anything foolish in a subway crowded with people who have the right to exercise force in defence of the community.
What a pathetic coward!
This GOOF needs to go away for a few years.
This is one reason I boycotted the TTC a long time ago. I am also working on getting my sister to boycott it totally also. She just got a car and works downtown. I also work downtown and tried the subway for a few weeks but after having to wait for 2+ hours, standing room only in the subway car due to a “signaling issue” one evening after a long day, that was it. There are also a lot of strange and dangerous people who might be sitting right in front of you, you never know. People like this moron. What if that poor guy was your father, brother, best friend. Video cameras and surveillance equipment doesn’t stop bad things from happening.
So is he 20 years old? Or is he 30-32? Which is it? It can’t be both, obviously. Writers please check your articles before posting.
You’re welcome for the feedback. I see it’s been fixed.
Thank you for the feedback.
Sorry – he is 20. Police had suspected that he was between 30-32 before he was identified.
A hard life makes one look older.
Hope the guy is ok…..won’t say what I think about the felon….my post would be deleted for those words
If he gets caught he will only get a slap in the hand and the judge will band him from carring a knife and house arrest for 2 months.
We call this JUSTICE.
RE Joe Parky: You really ought to wait and see what justice does get done, before you comment on it. I hope the perpetrator gets the punishment that he rightfully deserves and that the victim is going to be OK.
@ Reg.
He wouldn’t get the punishment that he deserves, haven’t you read the newspapers or listen to 680 news?
It would be great to get extra security and have transit offers at every stop but that comes at a cost. The TTC has 69 stations that operate most days 6am-1:30am that would mean it would take @ least two 10 hours shifts to cover just the subways.2*69= 138 TTC constables needed just to do that and knowing that they get more than $30/h, that would cost over 60K a year for each officer, or 8,280,000 more. a cost that as usual will be passed on to the riders.
Yes we would love to have all these great things more police, more security, but it comes at a cost and even with more it doesn’t stop people like this person who was determined to start an altercation.
I do know that i ride the TTC for weeks on end and don’t see a TTC constable and we should have more that are actually doing their job.
WTF??!!! Where were the transit police???
He just walked off the trin after an assistance alarm was activated? Where was security? Oh I know they were goofing off as usual and writing bogus tickets to cover their butts instead of doing their jobs!… The station should have been immediately locked down like schools are… No one leaves and only emergency personnel in.
Dave,
This person was dangerous and unstable. A lock down as you suggest would put a lot more people in harms way with no where to go.
If there’s a problem at the zoo, all visitors shall be locked in the lion cages.
Seen this kind of harassing behaviour before on the TTC (minus the slashing) – generally everyone tries to ignnore it, because nobody wants to be the one the harasser focuses his attention on.
Poor guy. I hope he’s okay.
they need better security on the subway. this guy should not have been able to walk freely off the train – you figure there is security at every station so if the train is stopped, and he wasn’t running, the station security should have been there. I was on a train where someone was physically threatening other passengers near me, someone pressed the strip and it took 20 minutes for emergency service personnel to arrive.
Is there no alarm system on the trains, as soon as an incident occurs the next station goes in lockdown mode giving time for cops and paramedics to close in and investigate? These cameras are every where but so far I do not see much of their potential use, except speed traps!!
So that he can go on a rampage and hurt everyone else on the train? I’d rather not be locked in with this type of nut-case.
TTC security police asleep in a donut shop?
TTC Security Police??? I thought they were an Urban legend, can’t say I’ve ever seen their presence. Granted I’m only an occassional rider.
Thank you for the warning.
I think some people should have been spanked or disciplined better when they were growing up. This should reflect straight back to this idiots dumb mother and father, where were they during his formative years? Seriously, I see the language and total lack of respect some of these parents show nowadays right in front of their kids towards other people, and I can totally see why these young people feel they can do whatever they want. THE PARENTS of this young man should be ashamed of themselves and walk out into the street and ask other people to give them a direct beating for their sons attitude! PERIOD.
possibly true, although you can have 2 or 3 great kids in a family and the 4th is just pure junk. Let’s not play attorney and deflect from what this piece of garbage truly is
“possibly true, although you can have 2 or 3 great kids in a family and the 4th is just pure junk.”
My question is: Why would you have more than 1 child if you are not ready to raise him or her into a good human being? Pregnancy and having baby(ies) is not a game! I agree with “The Human” as the parents are responsible for a lot of how this “despicable” human being has turned out to be.
Seriously, you’re asking “Why”?
a) Cause they like sex and don’t care?
b) They’re stupid and incapable of foresight?
c) Cause they want a welfare cheque raise?
I hope the suspect is caught quickly as he will do more damage the next time and that is assuming this is his first offense. This is an opportunity for his communtiy to get this guy off the street before he kills someone and it could be one of his own.
that’s why sometimes when you see people don’t get involved when things are happening u cannot judge them too harshly…how many times have we seen people trying to intervene and it costs them their life…thank God this good samaritan will be ok