The head of Toronto’s police union says a protest group’s call for front-line police officers to be disarmed in the wake of an officer-involved shooting is “preposterous.”

In an interview with CP24, Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack criticized the group and others who are rushing to conclusions without knowing all of the facts surrounding Friday night’s shooting at Queen subway station.

McCormack said he doesn’t know who the protesters were and “nobody should pay attention to them.”

The shooting has renewed the debate over how police use force.

In response to the shooting that wounded an 18-year-old man, a few dozen protesters demonstrated outside the downtown station’s entrance Sunday night. At one point, the group burned an effigy of a pig.

One of the protesters, Sakura Saunders, told The Canadian Press front-line officers are too quick to shoot in confrontations and that only senior officers should have guns.

McCormack said that scenario isn’t possible in a city where police regularly encounter violent situations that threaten the safety of officers and the public.

Like it or not, firearms are a much-needed tool in the police arsenal, McCormack said.

“We have a difficult job to do and we need to be equipped to do that job,” McCormack told CP24 commentator Stephen LeDrew. “We want our people to be well-equipped when they’re facing the challenges out there.”

In any situation, McCormack said, a police officer’s goal is to use as little force as necessary to reach a safe resolution.

Ontario’s Liberal government recently announced a plan to would allow all front-line officers to carry Tasers if agencies choose to equip them. The weapons were previously restricted to supervisors and specialized units.

Police Chief Bill Blair want more of his officers to carry the weapons but the Toronto Police Services Board recently rejected his request to purchase 184 new Tasers.

The province announced expanded Taser access in August, a month after 18-year-old Sammy Yatim was fatally shot by police aboard a TTC streetcar. Const. James Forcillo is charged with second-degree murder in Yatim’s death.

Several use-of-force reviews were launched after that shooting and there were arguments over whether Yatim’s death could have been prevented if front-line officers were equipped with Tasers.

On Monday, McCormack said Tasers would never replace firearms but they would give police another tool to consider.

Meanwhile, the investigation into Friday night’s shooting continues.

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit – a watchdog that investigates incidents involving police where there has been a death or serious injury – believes four of the nine officers at the scene opened fire.

Media reports say witnesses saw a man on a subway train holding what appeared to be a gun before police arrived. The SIU confirms it has recovered a weapon, but the agency would not reveal what type.

One transit rider, Jessica Wong, said she was on the train when police approached a man and told him to put his hands where they could see them, with the man yelling back “I don't have anything to live for any ways.”

Wong said in an email officers had their guns pointed at the man when she and others started getting off the train, and that not long after she heard a number of shots.

“That is when everyone started running up the staircase and escalators. People who were coming down were going back up, people were even running up (the) down escalators,” she wrote to The Canadian Press in an email.

With files from The Canadian Press

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