Toronto police officer stabbed, suspect shot at College and Lansdowne
Posted April 12, 2024 2:01 pm.
Last Updated April 15, 2024 10:45 am.
Toronto police say an on-duty officer was stabbed and the suspect was shot by police during a confrontation in the College Street and Lansdowne Avenue area on Friday afternoon.
It happened in front of a Tim Hortons at around 1:30 p.m.
Both were rushed to hospital with serious injuries and are now in stable condition.
The Toronto Police Association (TPA) said the officer, who was stabbed in the leg, is a rookie in his 20s who has been on the job for less than a year.
“He’s in good spirits and is currently (in hospital) with his family,” TPA President Jon Reid said.
Reid said he’s hopeful the officer will make a full recovery.
Video from the scene shows emergency vehicles flooding the area near a small plaza where the stabbing and shooting took place.
In another video the prone officer appears to be bleeding heavily from a leg wound with a large amount of blood pooling on the ground.
When officers approach the wounded suspect to apprehend him he says, “Hang on, I’ve been shot.”
Despite his plea, he is promptly cuffed.
A large knife can be seen on the ground near the scene.
A woman claiming to be the suspect’s girlfriend told reporters the couple was in the Tim Hortons having a coffee when two officers approached him and said they had a warrant for his arrest.
When the officers led the man outside, a confrontation ensued, she said.
“I’m not too sure how things escalated,” said Francie Eria, who added that her boyfriend, Gabriel, actually apologized to the officers after the stabbing took place.
She said he was carrying the knife because he uses it for work in the construction industry.
A Special Investigations Unit (SIU) spokesperson, Kristy Denette, provided a different account, saying officers were called to the Tim Hortons for reports of a person in crisis.
She said the two officers located the person in crisis in front of the Tim Hortons, where a confrontation ensued.
“There was some type of struggle with two officers that were on scene and during that struggle the man produced a knife and stabbed an officer,” she explained. “That officer shot the man, I believe one time. Prior to that there was also a conducted energy weapon that was deployed at least twice and that was ineffective.”
When asked about the girlfriend’s account of police attempting to make an arrest on an outstanding warrant, Denette replied, “I’m not able to speak to any warrant. I don’t have information about a warrant. The initial information that I received is that there was a call to police about a person in crisis and the man who was in crisis was located outside the Tim Hortons.”
The SIU investigates incidents involving police that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault, and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.
Friday’s stabbing is the latest in a string of recent incidents where Toronto police officers have been injured on the job.
“I’ve had enough with what’s going on in the city,” Reid fumed. “This is the third officer we’ve had injured now in three days.”
“It has to stop.”
Mayor Olivia Chow wished the injured officer a quick recovery in a post on X and commented on the three incidents this week in which officers were injured. “Violence is never acceptable,” she wrote.
