WEST-END GANG WAR AT HEART OF CREBA SLAYING

Police Stage Elaborate Takedowns As 17 Others Taken Into Custody On A
Variety Of Firearms, Drug Charges

Early morning police raids have netted eight suspects in the wanton
Boxing Day killing of 15-year-old Jane Creba, a murder that sent shock
waves across the GTA and brought the bloody gunplay that marred
Toronto at record rates last year to the city's front door.

Almost six months after the young star athlete was gunned down near
Yonge and Dundas Sts. on Dec. 26, Toronto police finally pounced,
culminating an investigation that preoccupied the force and enlisted
more than 20 full-time investigators.

Of the eight arrested Tuesday, two adults and one young offender have
been charged with second-degree murder and six counts of attempted
murder. Four adults and a young offender have also been charged with
manslaughter.

Seventeen others were arrested on drug and firearms offences.

Sources say the original dispute leading to the shooting was between
two west-end Toronto gangs.

Of those charged with manslaughter, Andre Thompson, 20, was one of a
pair of men who had been in custody since police arrested them at the
Castle Frank subway station within an hour of the shootings.

The second person arrested at the subway station at the time was a
17-year-old young offender, who has now been charged with
second-degree murder.

The two had been held on firearms-related offences after police seized
a semi-automatic 9mm Ruger handgun.

Two of the suspects facing murder charges, Tyshaun Barnett and Louis
Woodcock, both 19, had been arrested earlier this year on drug
trafficking charges.

Two of the arrested were among those injured during the rampage.

Neighbours of Andrew Smith, a 20 year-old charged with manslaughter
and weapons trafficking, said they were shocked by the police raid at
their apartment building in York this morning, the Star's Chris Maughan
reports.

Mary Pootosh, who lives on the third floor, down the hall from Smith,
said she woke up to sounds of police shouting: "Three-ten! Three-ten!
Open the door or we'll break it in! Come out with your hands up!"

Pootosh said more than seven officers had their guns drawn and were
wearing SWAT-style tactical gear. She said she suspected some kind of
struggle, pointing to a pool of dried blood in the hallway that she
said wasn't there last night.

When she heard the struggle, Pootosh stuck her head out the door to
get a look at what was going on.

"Then they said, `Close the door,' so I did. They even covered up my
peephole so I couldn't see what was going on," she remembers.

She said she can't believe that the young man she's known since birth
could have been involved with criminals.

"He's a good kid. He and his mother are church-going people," she
said.

"Just last night, I was sitting up in the food court with a nice young
girl and he waved to me like he always does. He seemed happy."

Pootosh, who said she considers Smith to be like another grandson, was
still shaken by yesterday's raid. "It's so sad. He was supposed to
graduate in about a week," she said.

Pootosh said Smith had previous trouble with the law. "I think he was
smoking up or something," she said. "But he's been alright since then,
and it's been years."

Their neighbour said she felt worst for Smith's mother. "She works a
night job, then comes home, then goes back out again to another job.
She's a hard-working woman. I feel so bad for her."

Neither she nor Pootosh knew Smith's father. "Ever since I've known
them there's never been a father there," said the neighbour, who has
known Smith since he was a baby.

Ralph Nigro, principal of Riverdale Collegiate Institute, where Creba
was a student, told reporters he believes the arrests will "bring a
sense of closure to this terrible tragedy."

And while he praised the Toronto police for their work, he pointed out
that the arrests brought back painful memories for many students,
particularly those who were closest to Creba.

"Our goal at the school right now and for the rest of the year will be
to provide our staff and students with whatever supports they need,"
said Nigro, standing outside the school's main entrance.

"Our guidance staff and board social work staff are available to offer
counselling, support to both students and staff at the school."

Creba's closest friends were pulled out of class during the televised
press conference to watch it alongside the principal, the
vice-principals and guidance staff, who offered support and answered
questions.

"I think in many ways (Creba's death) did bring us close together as a
school community," said Nigro. "I think we sort of looked at this
tragedy and many of us in the building have looked to our own families
and have reinforced just how precious life is for all of us.

Although Nigro has spoken with Creba's parents since the fatal
shooting, he said he did not speak with them today.

"They're coping as well as can be expected under the circumstances,"
he said, recalling previous conversations. "It's a terrible tragedy
that none of us hope we ever have to go through and I think that under
the circumstances they're coping quite well."

At 600 Oakwood Ave., where another of the arrests took place, the
young men coming and going from the red brick townhouse were
tight-lipped about the arrest of their roommates that morning.

Young women yelled obscenities out the windows at the reporters and
cameramen staking out the scene.

Oakwood Ave. had been the site of a more elaborate raid, which
involved 8 unmarked squad cars and dozens of police officers,
according to a bus driver running the 63 route, which passes by the
house. He also declined to give his name.

A handyman came by to fix the front and side doors, which police had
kicked in. He had to step over boxes and bags of garbage, broken beer
bottles, and broken-down barbecues just to get in. He said he didn't
know about that morning's raid.

Neighbours said they hadn't seen the raid, but had suspected that
police would be interested in the residents of 600 Oakwood.

"I'd see all kinds of parties there," said Phyllis Anderson, who lives
a few doors down. "There were ladies fighting in the street outside,
in all their short clothes and so on. I think they were hookers."

Anderson said she also suspected the tenants there were using
drugs.

Mike Tran, who lives across the street, said he had seen the police
show up at 600 Oakwood before. "It's about once a week. They were
fighting all the time," he said.

The arrests may help bring some closure to a city, which saw a door
opened that sunny Boxing Day between the frightening but often remote
world of street gangs and middle-class Toronto.

Like the 1994 Just Desserts restaurant shooting of 23-year-old Vivi
Leimonis, the Creba killing brought the city's endemic gun culture out
of its gangland setting -- cracking the elusive shell that separates
it from the rest of Toronto.

Police rounded up the suspects in a series of early morning raids
around the city, said police Chief Bill Blair, who announced the
arrests at a news conference this morning.

In addition to the eight arrested, a warrant is out for a man now in
England and police will be seeking an extradition order.

Another warrant has been issued for a young offender.

The suspects will appear in court Wednesday.

Police have revealed that a number of people are under witness
protection in connection with the case.

The Ministry of the Attorney General recently announced it was
revamping its witness-protection program to encourage more people to
come forward when they have witnessed a serious crime.

The province said it was improving short-term protection and reducing
the red tape involved in obtaining a new identity for co-operative
witnesses.

However, the kinds of protection offered to witnesses can also be as
simple as moving a person from one part of the city to another.

Last month, Toronto police announced they were offering a $50,000
reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.

In March, after the case seemed to have gone cold, police made what
appeared to be a breakthrough when they released six colour
photographs and video footage captured from the Eaton Centre, the
Toronto Transit Commission, St. Michael's Hospital and taxi companies.

The video showed a mystery man in a tan suit at the Eaton Centre
moments before the shooting and later while a wounded man was being
admitted to hospital.

Police have told reporters that from viewing the video, there were two
groups of men who were in "combative stances" in various locations
around the Eaton Centre that day.

Police say the shooting was preceded by a clash inside the Eaton
Centre that spilled onto Yonge St.

Today, just before 5 a.m., police began arresting people across the
city and taking them to 52 Division on Dundas St. W.

Police maintained they have been unable to say what led to the feud on
Boxing Day, but some reports suggest it was something as minor as one
person knocking the hat off another.

Toronto police were under intense pressure to lay charges in the case,
in part because it occurred in a public venue and involves a
significant number of witnesses and suspects.

In addition to screening massive amounts of videotape, police
interviewed more than 100 people.

Creba's parents, Virginia Barton and Bruce Creba, have not commented
publicly on the case.

Jane Creba was the 78th homicide of the year in Toronto.

With files from Curtis Rush and Isabel Teotonio