Sentencing has been delayed for a drug dealer who fatally shot an aspiring rapper, pending a stay of proceedings application in relation to the Maplehurst Correctional Complex ICIT deployment incident in December 2023.

“Under ordinary circumstances, I would have sentenced Lawrence Bruce to life in prison with a parole ineligibility period of 15 years,” Superior Court Justice Peter Bawden told court Monday.

Bruce was previously incarcerated at Maplehurst Correctional Complex (MCC) while awaiting trial.

In March 2026 at a judge-alone trial, he was found guilty of second-degree murder.

On Dec. 20, 2023, while Bruce was incarcerated, a correctional officer was punched in the face by an inmate, prompting an emergency response that included a code blue.  A superintendent authorized the deployment of the Institutional Crisis Intervention Team (ICIT) over two days, Dec. 22 and 23.

Nearly 200 inmates were extracted from their cells and searched down to their underwear, before being restrained with zip ties and escorted into the hallways of the jail where they were seated facing the wall.

“He (Bruce) is one of a number of accused persons incarcerated during that period and now seeks a stay of the criminal proceedings against them,” Bawden told court after reading his reasons for a life sentence with a 15-year period of parole ineligibility.

“This is the sentence I would have proposed. The stay will be heard by Justice (Clayton) Conlan. Should he recommend a Charter breach occurred and a stay is not warranted, he may recommend a reduction in the parole ineligibility,” Bawden said, then told the court the case would then return to him.

“Accordingly, I will not sentence at this time,” said Bawden.

Last October, Conlan stayed first-degree murder charges against Joseph Richard Whitlock, Kulvir Singh Bhatia and Karn Veer Sandhu. The judge found they were subjected to “torturous” state actions while being held in pretrial detention as presumptively innocent accused persons — state conduct that deployed ICIT against these three accused persons not for anything they did, but in order to avenge what one other inmate did to a correctional officer.

Bawden summarized the case involving Bruce as a personal dispute that should never have given rise to gun violence.

On Sept. 5, 2023, Dequan Demos was stopped at a gas station on Orton Park Road in Scarborough while refuelling. At the same time, Bruce pulled up and recognized Demos as an aspiring rapper, “Dopeboy DQ.” The two had never met before.

Demos promoted his music through social media and some of his songs contained insulting remarks about young men from Malvern who had been killed in acts of street violence. Demos identified himself with the Orton Park area which had an ongoing rivalry with Malvern.

Bruce who had recently completed serving a sentence for possession of a firearm and cocaine trafficking, was on probation and had a weapons prohibition. Court heard that shortly after completing his sentence he acquired another handgun because he was involved in the drug trade and believed carrying a firearm was necessary for his protection.

After recognizing Demos, a brief but intense confrontation ensued.

Bruce challenged Demos about the lyrics that he saw as disrespectful to his friends and held up four fingers, which signalled his affiliation with Malvern, a rival group.

Bruce testified that after he raised his fingers, Demos smiled and reached towards his hip in a way that Bruce believed indicated that he was carrying a gun and threatened to shoot him. Bruce stated that he felt extremely angry and threatened.

After Demos drove off, with his girlfriend sitting in the passenger seat, Bruce followed Demos’ Toyota Corolla. He testified it was to record a video of Demos fleeing which he would then post online to embarrass him.

Over the next two minutes, the vehicles travelled approximately 900 metres. Demos tried to distance himself from Bruce but could not. Bruce tried to block his path, and as Demos tried to flee and the two vehicles were side by side, Bruce fired a single bullet through the open passenger side window of his Range Rover striking Demos.

The 21-year-old was struck in the head as his girlfriend ducked and dove onto the roadway, narrowly missing being struck by Bruce.

After firing the fatal shot, Bruce fled the scene and disposed of the gun.

“Demos was unarmed throughout the incident although he responded aggressively and falsely suggested he was armed. He was lying. He recognized the danger he was in,” said Bawden.

Bruce denied he intended to kill Demos. He testified he only fired his gun to warn Demos that he was armed and to deter any of Mr. Demos’s associates who might have contemplated coming to assist him.

Bawden rejected that evidence, calling it aggravating that the shooting put Demos’ girlfriend and members of the public in grave danger, and that he had a prior firearm conviction and was subject to two court orders prohibiting him from possessing a handgun.

“The prevalence of handguns in Toronto and the need for strong deterrence have long been recognized by the courts,” said Bawden.

The judge also found the senseless nature of the killing aggravating.

“He testified he was angry by rap videos posted by Mr. Demos, ‘DopeBoy DQ,’ which contained disrespectful lyrics to two of his friends. Demos had no involvement in either killing. There is no evidence he was involved with anyone responsible,” Bawden added.

The judge also pointed out the confrontation at the gas station arose only because the two men encountered each other by chance.

“It is particularly troubling that the victim was murdered as he tried to flee from the accused,” Bawden said, adding the intentional killing to a retreating victim is especially aggravating.

Bruce’s lawyer, Gabriel Gross-Stein, told the court that a week has been set aside for submissions on the stay of proceedings in relation to the Maplehurst incident.

Outside court, Gross-Stein told Global News that Bruce was not only strip-searched and zip-tied at Maplehurst during the ICIT deployment, but also subjected to an assault after being taken back to his cell.

“What is particular to Mr. Bruce — and this isn’t in contention — is that Mr. Bruce was then assaulted by no reason by guards and so, that’s a pretty serious course of conduct from the officers at Maplehurst,” Gross-Stein said.