Disturbing video footage is circulating online this week in which at least a dozen young people — all purported to be teenagers — appear to swarm, chase and physically attack a convenience store worker in downtown Toronto.

The clip in question, first uploaded to Reddit on Feb. 17, 2023, was filmed on Yonge Street near Shuter Street, just across from the Toronto Eaton Centre.

In it, we see a group of young people in winter coats arguing with an apparent Circle K employee outside the convenience store at 211 Yonge St. The employee is wearing a red shirt with no jacket, indicating that he exited the store hastily.

A verbal dispute appears to be taking place as the convenience store worker gestures with his hands. Somebody can be heard yelling "touch me! touch me!"

Suddenly, someone punches the worker in the side of his head. More teens join in, punching and kicking as a young woman filming screams "oh sh*t! Beat his *ss!"

While the worker stumbles at one point, he chases the teens as they flee north on Yonge Street, rounding the corner at Shuter where another scuffle ensues. Multiple teens come up and punch the man in his head as he cowers at the corner of Yonge and Shuter.

Teens can be seen throwing the man's phone, laughing in his face and taunting him before they disperse.

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by u/No_Type_3346 in Torontology

It is a truly messed up act and, according to the person who posted the video to Reddit, an increasingly common one involving youths in Toronto.

"More and more kids and teens from good households and a stable upbringing are entrenching themselves in a truly awful way of life, something similar to acting as if they were in a gang," said the original poster, noting that the video was filmed a few weeks ago and sent to them by someone in the crowd.

"Also, social media algorithms are pushing content where people are outright being disrespectful in public and dysfunctional members of society to specifically teens."

The Toronto Police Service was unable to pull up any information regarding the incident without a firm date and time, while Circle K has yet to respond to a request for comment.

People responding to the video on Reddit are for the most part horrified and critical of the many teens who swarmed upon one single, unarmed convenience store employee (reasons for which are still unknown).

"Wasteyutes like this won't learn til they get shot, stabbed, or left to rot in a cage," remarked one commenter. "Violence for the sake of violence does not bring profit."

"What are these kids doing roaming dt on a school night? Do none of their dukes care? Future liabilities man smh," wrote another.

Some are saying it's a victory simply to see that no shots were fired and that nobody was otherwise assaulted with a weapon.

In addition to an ongoing wave of violence in public spaces, Toronto has seen a recent uptick in headlines about crimes involving teen suspects, specifically.

From armed robberies and attacks upon TTC workers to the stabbing death of a 59-year-old homeless man near Union Station, there's been no shortage of disturbing news about teen crime in Canada's largest city over the past few months.

On Dec. 20, 2022, police announced that three 13-year-old girls, three 14-year-old girls and two 16-year-old girls had each been charged with second-degree murder following the aforementioned stabbing of a man they did not know near Union Station.

The teens are accused to have attacked and killed the man, who had recently entered Toronto's shelter system just after midnight on Dec. 20, near York Street and University Avenue.

"These eight individuals, from what we've gathered so far... they met each other through social media," said Toronto Police Det. Sgt. Terry Browne at the time.

"They come from varying parts of the city — that is to say they are not from one specific geographic location. We don't know how they met on that evening, and why the destination was downtown Toronto."