Man charged with murder in Danforth hit-and-run that killed former child actor

A 24-year-old man has been charged in connection with a hit-and-run in Toronto's east end over the weekend that left a former child actor dead.

Toronto police announced on Friday that a suspect, identified as Ryan Andrews, had been charged in the death of 25-year-old Gabriel del Castillo Mullally, the city's fifth homicide victim of the year.

Mullally was struck by an SUV while walking on the sidewalk in the area of Danforth and Cedarvale avenues shortly before 4 a.m. on Feb. 5. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Meanwhile, the driver of the SUV fled the scene. Police said Andrews was arrested on Wednesday, and is scheduled to appear in court next week.

According to police, prior to the collision, Mullally was drinking at an establishment while the suspect was outside conversing with a group.

The circumstances that led to Mullally being struck are unknown. Witnesses told CP24 there was some sort of altercation between a group of young adults and there was yelling.

"There was a dispute, which ended up with the man getting into his car, and deliberately driving [his vehicle] into the crowd of young adults. They were able to get out of the way," Natasha Bilak, who witnessed the incident, said last Sunday.

She said the driver then made a U-turn on Danforth Avenue, and drove towards the group a second time.

"He had seen a gap, and basically hopped up on the curb [in his vehicle] and hit the one man," Bilak said.

Meanwhile, a video obtained by CTV News Toronto earlier this week appears to show the moments before Mullally was hit.

In the video, a driver appears to follow a group as they leave Rusty Nail Pub. The driver stops the car before mounting the curb and accelerating into the group of pedestrians. The driver takes off but appears to return to the scene of the crime later in the video.

Mullaly was in his second year at Toronto Metropolitan University studying business law.

"He was very bright, he was musically talented, he was generous and kind and hugely protective of those he loved," his father Guy said in a statement to CTV News Toronto on Monday.

In 2011, Mullally starred in 'Amy George' which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The filmmakers said they were ‘shocked’ and ‘devastated’ by the former actor's death.

- with files from CP24's Joanna Lavoie and CTV News Toronto's Phil Tsekouras