Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders says the gun that a suspect pulled out of his pants while handcuffed in the back of a cruiser was concealed in a holster that his officers have “never seen” before.
“The type of apparatus that was used to holster the firearm is very unique,” Saunders said in a one-on-one interview with CP24 on Wednesday night.
A shocking video obtained by CTV News Toronto earlier this week appears to show a handcuffed suspect, who was seated in the back of a police cruiser, reach into his waistband and pull out a semi-automatic handgun.
Despite conducting a pat-down search of the suspect during his arrest, the officers did not find the gun hidden in the man’s pants, Saunders said.
Officers were only alerted to the existence of a weapon when they heard the man drop the gun on the floor of the cruiser, police said in a news release issued earlier this week.
The gun was subsequently secured and the suspect was brought into a downtown police division for processing.
Saunders said it is not uncommon for weapons to be concealed in layers of clothing but noted that his officers are not familiar with the kind of “magnetized type of system” that was incorporated in the holster used by the suspect in this case.
“We’ve never seen this before. We put out an officer safety bulletin so my frontline people can see that this is now something that is out in the public,” Saunders said.
“My training component will look at this and then figure out where can it be concealed, how can it be concealed, how do we adapt and change out methodology, and how we search when it comes to the pat searches.”
He noted that officer safety is of the “utmost importance" and said he was relieved no one was hurt.
“We will look at whether or not it was a training issue or whether or not it is a disciplinary issue,” he said. “We have to make sure we get it right and we learn from these mistakes that occur.”
The police service's professional standards unit will also be conducting an investigation into how the video of the incident was leaked to members of the media.
“The leaks are going to be the death of us. When you take the oath of office, you are not allowed to share information that was given to you as a result of you in your position of authority. When you breach that, it compromises on a lot of things,” Saunders said.
“The idiot videoing this and sending it out to his friends or her friends… jeopardizes the community, jeopardizes officers, and jeopardizes any opportunity for us to move these types of investigations further. So I want a full investigation on that and make sure that this type of behaviour is curbed.”
The suspect in the video, who has been identified by police as 38-year-old Ali Showbeg, is facing nine criminal charges, including multiple weapons offences and an impaired driving charge.
