Toronto police's attempt to arrest a suspect as part of a police stabbing investigation leads to a hostage situation and a wild chase in a U-Haul truck in the city on Wednesday.
It all started late this morning when police intercepted the suspect in the area of Danforth and Warden avenues in east Toronto.
At the time of the operation, the suspect was driving a Cube truck owned by the rental company U-Haul. However, when officers intervened and intercepted his vehicle, the suspect found a way to kidnap a person by threatening them with a weapon, police spokesman Maher Abdel-Malik summarized.
The spokesman emphasized that some police officers were slightly injured in this “altercation,” without providing any further details about how the events unfolded.
The suspect's hostage was recovered by police, but in the process the man behind the wheel of the U-Haul truck escaped, leading to a police chase that even included a York Regional Police helicopter.
Since the police considered the pursuit dangerous, they kept their distance and preferred to pursue the truck from a distance. The suspect, in turn, caused several collisions as he fled, in which innocent citizens were sometimes slightly injured.
The pursuit ultimately ended when the truck got into an accident between a tow truck and a tactical task force vehicle. The police then managed to get their hands on the suspect's collar.
“The outcome could have been catastrophic, considering it was someone armed, but it ended well,” said investigator Abdel-Malik.
Essentially, the agents were intervening as part of an investigation into a colleague who was stabbed while off-duty on Dec. 6 to intervene in the theft of a television by four people at a Best Buy store.