Posted on: November 15, 2024, 01:24h.
Last updated on: November 15, 2024, 01:45h.
Toronto police have charged a teenager with second-degree homicide in connection with the death of high-stakes online poker player Matthew Bergart.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named because he’s a minor, was one of 23 people arrested during a “Wild West” shootout with police at a recording studio in the city on Monday night.
Home Invasion
Bergart, 30, was shot dead in the early hours of April 25, 2024, while visiting a friend in Toronto’s Etobicoke district in what police described as a targeted home invasion.
Three suspects wearing dark clothing and balaclavas broke into the house and demanded valuables before shooting Bergart multiple times.
The owner of the property, not the victim, was the intended target of the heist, and police said Bergart was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“This is a situation where there was a bad decision to do a break and enter, and that was compounded and turned into a murder,” Det. Sgt. Brandon Price told reporters. “We were fortuitous that [the suspect] was caught up in this [shootout] so that he could be taken off of the streets.”
Dramatic Shootout
On Monday, plainclothes police officers were in the vicinity of the recording studio looking for a man wanted in connection with a robbery. That’s when a stolen car pulled into the parking lot of an adjacent FreshCo supermarket. Three men got out and began firing at the studio where a birthday party was in full swing, police said.
Revelers inside the studio came out guns blazing. More than 100 bullets were fired during the exchange, some striking an unmarked police vehicle. Police said it was a miracle no one was killed or injured.
Police boxed in the vehicle in the parking lot and apprehended one suspect after a foot chase. The other two got away. A further 21 people were arrested inside the recording studio. In all, eight were charged with multiple offenses, including unauthorized possession of a firearm.
Staff Sgt. Joe Matthews told reporters it was “deeply concerning” that many of those involved were teenagers.
“It should alarm all of us that the young people we took into custody are already heavily involved in serious activity and armed with high-powered firearms,” he said.
‘Dared to Dream’
The poker community remembered Bergart as a “fearless” player who took on some of the best in the world at the highest stakes. But he rarely played the live tournament scene, and little is known about him personally.
A GoFundMe page set up to support his family described him primarily as a musician who “dared to dream and create with a unique genius in both his music and his work.”
