Witness describes horrific scene of fatal High Park subway stabbing
Posted December 8, 2022 4:53 pm.
Last Updated December 9, 2022 5:57 am.
Trains will once again be stopping at High Park station on Friday morning after a Thursday afternoon stabbing left one woman dead, another injured, and witnesses to the violence shaken.
One transit user who witnessed the incident describes a chaotic scene with people screaming and scrambling for safety while a man wielded an object described as an “ice-pick.”
John, a CityNews employee was riding the subway when it happened and says he heard a disturbance on the train as it approached the station.
“I saw a woman rush past me and into the next car and then a commotion at the other end of the train, children crying and some women screaming,” he said.
As the train pulled into the station, he noticed a woman bleeding from the hand exiting the train.
He walked off at the same time and noticed a scene at the west end of the platform.
“I saw a man in the corner of the subway car, holding what appeared to be a sharp instrument, like an ice-pick and he was being prevented from leaving the train by another man.”
A witness says the man in the photo was wielding an object like an ice-pick on the subway.
John says it appeared that a Good Samaritan intervened to prevent the suspect from fleeing.
“He was a big guy, who had his fists up and told the guy ‘Put it down, put it down.’ ”
A witness says this bystander intervened and held a stabbing suspect on scene until police arrived.
John says the suspect didn’t react to the commands and remained inside the subway car with the weapon in his hand.
That’s when John noticed a woman slumped on a subway seat behind the Good Samaritan. She was bleeding from the chest and neck area.
“A TTC employee and another man then went into the car and pulled her out and onto the platform and tried to help her until paramedics arrived.”
John says she appeared gravely injured and wasn’t moving.
RELATED: 1 woman dead, another injured in stabbing at High Park subway station
When police arrived, John says the first two officers on scene ordered the man to the ground.
“He refused repeated requests to go to the ground. One of the officers then used his Taser and eventually they managed to subdue him, but he was not easily surrendering, even when he was on the ground.”
Police later confirmed that one of two people stabbed in the incident died. A second victim is in stable condition.
Police described both victims as women in the 20s and 30s and said it’s too soon to say if the victims knew the attacker.
