Toronto Police have identified the assailant in yet another random attack on the TTC after arresting a 43-year-old woman alleged to have stabbed a 23-year-old female victim aboard a streetcar on Tuesday afternoon.
14 Division police officers allege that Leah Valdez, 43, stabbed an unknown fellow passenger aboard a southbound streetcar on Spadina Avenue at Sussex Avenue around 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
Police say the 23-year-old victim was approached and stabbed several times by her assailant and was subsequently transported to hospital with life-altering injuries by emergency responders.
STABBING:
Spadina Ave & Sussex Ave
2:01pm
– police o/s
– occ’d on a street car
– unknown if known to each other
– suspect stabbed the victim multiple times
– suspect was arrested on scene
– victim transported to hospital via emerg run#GO184865
^se— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) January 24, 2023
The victim, though severely injured, was reportedly treated in serious but not life-threatening condition.
Police say that, with the assistance of the community, the suspect was quickly apprehended and charged with attempted murder and several weapons-related offences.
Young woman stabbed by stranger on Toronto streetcar amid TTC violence wave https://t.co/dW7Ukily7w #Toronto #TTC
— blogTO (@blogTO) January 24, 2023
Valdez appeared in court virtually at Old City Hall on Wednesday morning to face her charges.
The attack joins a growing list of violent incidents on the TTC in recent weeks, a wave of crime that has left Toronto residents feeling uneasy on public transit and even just walking down the street.
Unprovoked attacks are proving another problem on the rise in Toronto, including the horrifying murder of Ken Lee by eight unknown teenage girls in late 2022, and, more recently, the killing of an elderly woman on a busy stretch of Yonge Street.
The chaos continued on Wednesday, when two TTC workers were randomly chased by an attacker wielding a syringe at Dundas subway station.
