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Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:03:17 -0500
From: News@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
Subject: Police shoot two men in stolen car
PUBLICATION: GLOBE AND MAIL
DATE: 2007.01.17
PAGE: A13
BYLINE: TIMOTHY APPLEBY
SECTION: Toronto News
EDITION: Metro
WORD COUNT: 673
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Police shoot two men in stolen car
SIU probing officers' actions in early-morning incident that ended in
gunfire
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A violent early-morning confrontation in Toronto's downtown financial
district yesterday sent two men to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds
after plainclothes police opened fire on a stolen vehicle that moments
earlier had struck their unmarked car and appeared to be trying to run
down the two officers.
The officers fired multiple shots, penetrating the wind****eld on the
driver's side and blowing out the back window and at least one side
window of the 1998 Dodge Neon. There was no return fire and it was
unclear whether either of the two occupants was armed, said a
spokeswoman for the Special Investigations Unit, which scrutinizes all
police-civilian shootings.
But a well-placed police source said the two officers began shooting as
the Neon was driving straight at them, which would explain the bullet
hole, or holes, in the wind****eld.
"The driver rammed the police car, backed up and then drove directly at
the officers," the source said. "That's the heart of it." The Neon is
registered to Louis William Flom of Finch Avenue West.
It had been stolen a few hours earlier, a woman answering the phone at
the Flom residence said.
The two injured men, who are 23 and 22, were under police guard in
nearby St. Michael's Hospital, where both were listed in serious but
stable condition. The driver sustained bullet wounds to his head, neck
and shoulder. His companion was hit in the abdomen and chest.
Hard on the heels of the season's first snowfall, which complicated the
task of SIU forensic experts scouring the ground for evidence, the 2:30
a.m. incident near the intersection of King and Bay Streets caused an
hours-long disruption to bankers, traders, office workers and the
thousands of others who normally clog Toronto's tower-lined financial
hub.
King was closed to traffic from York Street to Yonge Street, as was a
stretch of Bay, from Wellington Street to Adelaide Street.
In all, five streetcar routes were affected, with some riders diverted
on to tem****ary shuttle buses.
The King-Bay intersection was closed to pedestrians until the yellow
police tape came down shortly before 11 a.m.
In line with long-standing SIU practice where criminal charges have not
been laid, the names of the police officers were withheld.
As for the two wounded, both appear to be from Toronto but investigators
were still trying to determine whether the identification they carried
was genuine, and to contact relatives.
If they did try to run down the two officers, charges of attempted
murder could be laid.
The chain of events began around 2:10 a.m. on Parliament Street, a few
blocks east of the downtown core, when the occupants of the Neon ignored
an order by police in a marked cruiser to pull over, SIU spokeswoman
Rose Bliss said.
Those officers radioed in the incident and a second cruiser began
tailing the car. The second police car was not chasing the Neon as it
drove west along King Street and struck the grey Chrysler, Ms. Bliss
said.
The plainclothes officers in the Chrysler "were in the area doing some
kind of investigation and they heard about this call because it came
over the radio," Ms. Bliss said. "They knew [the Neon] was coming their
way and actively got involved." It was unclear whether the collision
occurred because the driver of the Neon lost control of the car. The
Chrysler was damaged on the lower panel of its passenger door,
suggesting it had either been parked at right angles to the curb, in a
bid to block or box in the westbound Neon, or else had been spun into
that position.
The gunfire erupted after the two plainclothes officers exited their
stricken vehicle and confronted the two men.
As to whether the Neon was then driven at the two officers, "that could
be one of the scenarios," Ms. Bliss said.
"Without referring to this case, if you're in a vehicle and doing that,
you're using it as a weapon." The SIU has assigned five investigators
and four forensic investigators to the case.
Under its mandate to probe all police-civilian altercations involving
death, serious injury or ***ual assault, the agency examined a total of
226 incidents last year provincewide -- a 10-year high.
Those 226 comprised seven firearms deaths, nine firearms injuries, 31
custody deaths, 124 custody injuries, five vehicular deaths, 21
vehicular injuries and 29 ***ual-assault complaints.
Charges were laid in two instances.
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