Toronto’s top cop says police are going to review the conduct of at least three officers who were aggressive with a shooting suspect during an arrest that was caught on camera Tuesday night.
Police Chief Bill Blair isn’t offering an opinion on the officers’ actions, but he stopped short of saying the use of force was appropriate as he spoke to a reporter Wednesday.
“I think that it was a very serious crime that was committed (Tuesday) and the officers were apprehending a very dangerous gunman,” Blair said as he attended an event at Yonge-Dundas Square. “All of those matters will be reviewed, but those are dangerous situations. They take an armed man who has just been involved in shooting someone, that’s a very dangerous thing for a police officer to have to deal with and I think the city’s a safer place because those individuals have been apprehended.”
The head of the city’s police union says he has no problem with the officers’ conduct.
Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack and a witness who filmed the encounter said the suspect was resisting arrest and ignoring the officers’ commands.
McCormack said the officers acted professionally and were following protocol by trying to use as little force as necessary to detain the man.
The video obtained by CTV News shows one of the officers repeatedly striking the man, who is down on the ground, with what appears to be a baton as a second officer attempts to restrain him in a backyard.
As that happens, a third officer climbs over a short wooden fence and then appears to kick at the suspect or something on the ground.
After the arrest, one of the officers appeared to have blood on his face.
The suspect and parts of the officers’ bodies were obscured by a wooden deck as the witness filmed the arrest from an upper floor inside a house.
“The suspect was resisting arrest and the police warned the suspect several times not to resist,” said the man who filmed the incident. “The suspect continued to resist. The police then suppressed the suspect and in the process the suspect was injured.”
McCormack said the officers had no choice but to use force to get the man to comply with their demands to stop resisting.
“We have to sometimes move the use of force model to ensure compliance, and that’s what those officers did,” he told CP24. “They used as much force or as little force as necessary to effect compliance and I stand by our officers and their actions.”
McCormack said he previously worked alongside the 51 Division officers who arrested the man, and he described them as upstanding and professional.
SIU conducting preliminary investigation
Because the suspect suffered an injury, Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit is conducting a preliminary investigation to determine if the case meets its threshold to launch a full investigation. The watchdog investigates incidents involving police where there has been a serious injury, death or allegations of sexual assault.
The arrest occurred after a man was shot in the leg inside a barber shop near Sherbourne and Bloor streets around 6:30 p.m.
A gunman entered the shop and tried to shoot a man, who fled into the bathroom. The suspect followed him and fired again, but wound up striking a different man inside the bathroom. The shooting victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
A police officer who was in the neighbourhood followed the gunman and a second suspect as they fled in a car, and police stopped the pair near Yonge Street and Davenport Road a short time later.
One of the suspects was arrested there, but the second one drove off and crashed at Yonge and Roxborough streets.
After ditching the car and running away, the suspect was captured in the backyard on Gange Avenue where the video was taken. The man was taken into custody and transported to hospital by paramedics.
Police say they recovered a firearm when the men were taken into custody.
The shooting suspects, aged 26 and 28, are facing charges.
McCormack said people should be upset with the suspects’ alleged actions, not the officers’ conduct.
“I’ve got a problem with people coming to downtown Toronto attempting to murder somebody, shooting somebody in the middle of the afternoon,” McCormack said. “I have a problem with people trying to evade or avoid police, driving recklessly, endangering the public. And I have a problem with people running from the police and resisting arrest.”
With files from CP24 crime specialist Sue Sgambati.
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