WATCH: What we’ve heard from Toronto police on the reported hijab attack they say did not happen. @JustineLewkowic reports pic.twitter.com/6gGwaFrxhB
— NEWSTALK1010 (@NEWSTALK1010) January 15, 2018
Toronto Police say an 11-year-old girl's claim that her hijab was cut, twice by a man with blue-handled scissors never happened.
The attack was purported to have happened Friday morning as the girl made her way to Pauline Johnson Public School near Sheppard Ave E and Birchmount Rd.
After what police call a "detailed investigation", they have determined that "the events described in the original news release did not happen."
Police are not saying what evidence led them to that conclusion.
The case, which was being considered as a possible hate crime, is now closed and no charges are being laid.
Mayor John Tory has released a statement on the police update that Friday's reported hijab attack did not happen: pic.twitter.com/eeeTKG37iQ
— NEWSTALK1010 (@NEWSTALK1010) January 15, 2018
At a news conference Friday, the sixth grader told reporters that on her way to school, she had felt something tugging at the hood of her coat, spun around and saw man there, smiling with scissors. She says he returned to cut her hijab from the bottom up 10 minutes later.
Police said the cut to the girl's light blue hijab was about 12" long.
The alleged incident captured national attention after it was reported Friday and drew public condemnation from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.
A spokesman for the Toronto District School Board said Monday they are "very thankful" that the alleged assault did not happen.
with files from the Canadian Press