Police Shoot Man After He Allegedly Came At Them With A Sword
Posted May 17, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
- Police can see all kinds of bizarre people, weapons and disputes during an average shift. But it’s not likely the officers who arrived at a Kingston and Lawrence high rise just before 3am Thursday were expecting this: a man who allegedly came at them with a sword. The province’s Special Investigations Unit has been called in after a man was shot on the 21st floor of a unit at 4301 Kingston Road.
Because the SIU is on the case, cops aren’t allowed to say much about what happened. But it appears they were called to the residence to break up a dispute between neighbours. When they arrived, reports indicate a man charged at them with a sword and at least one of the officers was forced to open fire. The 52-year-old wounded man was rushed to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre with wounds to his hand. The SIU is called in whenever there’s an incident involving police that results in death or a significant injury.
A sword would seem to be a weapon that cops rarely encounter, but it happens more often than you’d think. The SIU cleared Toronto officers last year in an incident in which they shot and killed a man brandishing a samurai sword. York Police charged a man in November 2006, after a home invasion involved one of the weapons.
And a check of the police blotter from other areas shows swords have been used in a number of crimes across North America in just the last few days. In Los Angeles, police shot and killed a man wielding a sword. They believe he’d also set fire to two churches and stabbed a parishioner.
In Decatur, Illinois, cops responded to a home after a 41-year-old woman apparently stabbed herself with a samurai sword. They still don’t know why she did it. A man was impaled with a similar weapon in Urbana, Ohio. A woman is accused in that crime. A samurai sword is also at the centre of another case in Florida, in which a man is charged with killing his estranged wife’s boyfriend. A Worcester, Massachusetts resident has been arrested for allegedly attacking another man with a sword. And a Dallas man is in custody after he allegedly went after his own parents with a 24-inch rapier, because they complained he was playing music too loud.
